forever-service

forever-service

Make provisioning node script as a service simple.

We love nodejs for server development. But, It is surprising to find that there is no standard tool to provision script as a service. Forever kind of tools comes close but they only demonize the process and not provision as service; which can be automatically started on reboots. To make matter worse, each OS and Linux distro has its own unique way of provisioning the services correctly.

Goals

• Make an universal service installer across various Linux distros and other OS.
• Automatically configure other useful things such as Logrotation scripts, port monitoring scripts etc.
• Graceful shutdown of services as default behaviour.

Platforms supported

• Amazon Linux
• Redhat Linux
• CentOS
• Ubuntu (upstart, sysv fallback for >= 15.04, no systemd support)
• Debian
• Raspbian
• OSMC Linux
• Fedora 21
• Oracle Linux
• Elementary OS
• BunsenLabs
• more to come..

Prerequisite

forever must be installed globally using

npm install -g forever

Install

npm install -g forever-service

Usage

$ forever-service --help

forever-service version 0.x.x


  Usage: forever-service [options] [command]

  Commands:

    install [options] [service]
       Install node script (defaults to app.js in current directory) as service via forever
    
    
    
    delete [service]
       Delete all provisioned files for the service, will stop service if running before delete
    

  Options:

    -h, --help     output usage information
    -V, --version  output the version number

Install new service

$ forever-service install --help

forever-service version 0.x.x


  Usage: install [options] [service]

  Options:

    -h, --help                         output usage information
    -s, --script [script]              Script to run as service e.g. app.js, defaults to app.js

    -e --envVars [vars]                Environment Variables for the script
                                       e.g. -e "PORT=80 ENV=prod FOO=bar"

    -o --scriptOptions " [options]"    Command line options for the script

    --minUptime [value]                Minimum uptime (millis) for a script to not be considered "spinning", default 5000
                                       
    --spinSleepTime [value]            Time to wait (millis) between launches of a spinning script., default 2000
                                       
    --noGracefulShutdown               Disable graceful shutdown
                                       
    -t --forceKillWaitTime [waittime]  Time to wait in milliseconds before force killing; after failed graceful stop
                                       defaults to 5000 ms, after which entire process tree is forcibly terminated
                                       
    -f --foreverOptions " [options]"   Extra command line options for forever
                                       e.g. -f " --watchDirectory /your/watch/directory -w -c /custom/cli" etc..
                                       NOTE: a mandatory space is required after double quotes, if begining with -
                                       
    --start                            Start service after provisioning
                                       
    --nologrotate                      Do not generate logrotate script
                                       
    --logrotateFrequency [frequency]   Frequency of logrotation
                                       valid values are daily, weekly, monthly, "size 100k" etc, default daily
                                       
    --logrotateMax [value]             Maximum logrotated files to retain, default 10 (logrotate parameter)
                                       
    --logrotateDateExt                 Archive old versions of log files adding a daily extension like YYYYMMDD instead of simply adding a number

    --logrotateCompress                Enable compression for logrotate

    -p --foreverPath                   Path for forever cli e.g. /usr/local/bin,
                                       by default forever cli is searched in system Path variable

    -u --applyUlimits                  Apply increased ulimits in supported environment

    -r --runAsUser [user]              *Experimental* Run service as a specific user, defaults to root (No ubuntu support yet)

Delete service

$ forever-service delete --help

forever-service version 0.x.x


  Usage: delete [options] [service]

  Options:

    -h, --help  output usage information

Examples

• Provision a service 'test' with app.js script in current directory

$ sudo forever-service install test

On Amazon Linux, This command will setup initd script and provision service using chkconfig, Create logrotate scripts

• Provision a service 'test' with main.js script in current directory

$ sudo forever-service install test --script main.js

• Custom options for forever

$ sudo forever-service install test -f " --watchDirectory /your/watch/directory -w"

• Command line parameters for the script

$ sudo forever-service install test --script main.js -o " param1 param2"

• Delete service

$ sudo forever-service delete test

This command will stop service if running, clean up all provisioned files and service

• Get list of running services (Remember all forever command line options are available since we use forever internally)

$ sudo forever list

Run non nodejs scripts as service

forever allows to use -c command line parameter to point to alternate command line for execution, using that one can easily launch non-node apps also as service

• Run Java Program as service

$ sudo forever-service install javaservice1 -s start.jar -f " -c 'java -Xms1024m -Xmx1024m -jar'"

This command will run start.jar using java command line

• Run PHP Program as service

$ sudo forever-service install phpservice1 -s info.php -f " -c php"

This command will run info.php using php command line

Known Issue(s)

"restart service" command works like stop in Ubuntu due to bug in upstart https://bugs.launchpad.net/upstart/+bug/703800

Roadmap

Support other Linux distros, OSX, Windows etc.

Contributions are welcome, please send pull requests

Sponsored By

Zapty - Seamless teamwork anywhere (Modern Communication, Task & Project management for teams)