How to run node js server as a daemon process?

Question

I am using Ionic framework and nodejs for one app. All nodejs files are in linux server. I am starting the nodejs server using 'npm start &' command through putty. But the problem is if I close putty the server is getting stopped after sometime. I tried 'nohup npm start &'. But still I am facing the same issue. How to start this as a daemon process..?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4018154/node-js-as-a-background-service this will help you . install `npm install -g forever` and run `forever start server.js` — Shubham Batra, Dec 28 '15 at 09:22

score 15 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 28 '15 at 09:31

15

You can use pm2 for production.

To install pm2 :

npm install pm2 -g

To start an application simply just run :

pm2 start app.js

You can check logs via:

pm2 logs

For more options just checkout their readme files on github repo.

answered Dec 28 '15 at 09:31

nyzm

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Wow, this is an incredible package. – tensai Jun 12 '17 at 09:02

Oleg N. Borodin · Answer 2 · 2018-11-05T12:24:35.573

This is adaptation of daemon module:

const child_process = require('child_process')

function child(exe, args, env) {
    const child = child_process.spawn(exe, args, { 
        detached: true,
        stdio: ['ignore', 'ignore', 'ignore'],
        env: env
    })
    child.unref()
    return child
}

module.exports = function(nodeBin) {
    console.log('Daemonize process')

    if (process.env.__daemon) {
        return process.pid
    }
    process.env.__daemon = true

    var args = [].concat(process.argv)
    var node = args.shift()
    var env = process.env
    child(node, args, env)
    return process.exit()
}

Usage:

const daemon = require('daemon')
daemon()

app.listen(...)

https://wiki.unix7.org/node/daemon-sample

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 28 '15 at 09:32

For creating true daemons (a process not attached to any tty) you can use one of the several daemon modules available on npm.

A quick search gave me this: https://www.npmjs.com/package/daemon

Interestingly, the module above works using pure javascript and node.js built-in modules without requiring any C extensions. It works by exploiting how child_process works in newer versions of node (> 0.9).

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 08 '21 at 15:29

either use PM2/forever & nginx for managing the services well. [RECOMMENDED]
or you can run by the default OS services. I'm using ubuntu 20.04 amd64 on ec2-t2.micro and everything is preinstall with image.

# TO Run the service on port 80 as deamon thread
sudo PORT=80 nohup node server.js &

#To run the service on 3000 port and point to 80.
PORT=3000 nohup node server.js &
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3000

# to kill the process run 
ps -ef | grep "node"
kill -9 <pid>

How to run node js server as a daemon process?

4 Answers4