Node.js as a background service

Question

I want my node.js server to run in the background, ie: when I close my terminal I want my server to keep running. I've googled this and came up with this tut, however it doesn't work as intended. So instead of using that daemon script, I thought I just used the output redirection (the 2>&1 >> file part), but this too does not exit (I get a blank line in my terminal, like it's waiting for output/errors).

I've also tried to put the process in the background, but as soon as I close my terminal the process is killed as well.

So how can I leave it running when I shut down my computer?

Answer 1

This might not be the accepted way, but I do it with screen, especially while in development because I can bring it back up and fool with it if necessary.

screen
node myserver.js
>>CTRL-A then hit D

The screen will detach and survive you logging off. Then you can get it back back doing screen -r. Hit up the screen manual for more details. You can name the screens and whatnot if you like.

Answer 2

use nohup

nohup node server.js &

Answer 3

Check out fugue! Apart from launching many workers, you can demonize your node process too!

http://github.com/pgte/fugue