How does one start a node.js server as a daemon process?

Question

In Python Twisted, you have the twistd command that helps you with a number of things related to running your application (daemonize it for example).

Ho

Answer 1

To start a systemd service manager daemon, write a service file. For example, create a file /etc/systemd/system/myservice.service.

[Unit]
Description=myservice-description
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/myservice-location/src/node/server.js --args=here
Restart=always
User=me
Group=group
Environment=PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
WorkingDirectory=/opt/myservice-location

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Remember to update the service manager daemon after every change to the myservice.service file.

$ systemctl daemon-reload

Then start the service running and enable the service to start at boot.

$ systemctl start myservice
$ systemctl enable myservice