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
-----
1. Make an universal service installer across various Linux distros and other OS.
2. Automatically configure other useful things such as Logrotation scripts, port monitoring scripts etc.
3. 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)