Awesome

systemd for Node.js

Adds support for running node.js as a socket-activated service under systemd.

Note: This is a fork of rubenv/node-systemd.

More info on the how and why: https://rocketeer.be/articles/deploying-node-js-with-systemd/

For more background on socket activation: http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/socket-activation.html

Obviously, this will only work on Linux distributions with systemd (such as Fedora).

Usage

Consider a simple HTTP server:

var http = require('http');

const server = http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
    res.end('Hello World\n');
});

We want our server to work both stand-alone (node server.js) and as a socket-activated systemd service.

$ npm install @derhuerst/systemd

If the service is started via systemd socket activation, getListenArgs() will return an array of arguments to be passed into server.listen(). Otherwise, it will return null and we'll listen to the port as usual.

const {getListenArgs} = require('@derhuerst/systemd');

const port = 1000;
const listenArgs = getListenArgs() || [port];
server.listen(...listenArgs);

Install a systemd socket file (e.g.: /etc/systemd/system/node-hello.socket):

[Socket]
ListenStream=1337

[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target

Install a systemd service file (e.g.: /etc/systemd/system/node-hello.service):

# Adjust according to man 5 systemd.exec

[Service]
ExecStart=/path/to/bin/node /path/to/hello.js
StandardOutput=syslog
User=nobody
Group=nobody

Be sure to substitute the paths to node and your script!

• ⚠ Run node directly or make sure your startup helper scripts can hand over the sockets. npm start probably won't work.

Reload the systemd daemon so that it picks up the new unit files:

$ systemctl --system daemon-reload

Enable and start the socket:

$ systemctl enable node-hello.socket
$ systemctl start node-hello.socket

Check the status of the socket:

$ systemctl status node-hello.socket
node-hello.socket
      Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/node-hello.socket)
      Active: active (listening) since Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:27:47 +0200; 2s ago
      CGroup: name=systemd:/system/node-hello.socket

Great, it's running!

Check the status of the service, not running yet:

$ systemctl status node-hello.service
node-hello.service
      Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/node-hello.service)
      Active: inactive (dead)
      CGroup: name=systemd:/system/node-hello.service

Do a request to your service:

$ curl -i http://localhost:1337/
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/plain
Connection: keep-alive
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

Hello World

Check again, now it will be running:

$ systemctl status node-hello.service
node-hello.service
      Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/node-hello.service)
      Active: active (running) since Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:32:10 +0200; 38s ago
    Main PID: 1159 (node)
      CGroup: name=systemd:/system/node-hello.service
              └ 1159 /path/to/bin/node /path/to/hello.js

Contributing

Before submitting a pull request, please check your code.

Install the dev dependencies:

$ npm install --dev

Run ESLint:

$ npm run lint

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (C) 2011-2014 by Ruben Vermeersch <ruben@rocketeer.be>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.