# forever [![Join the chat at https://gitter.im/foreverjs/forever](https://badges.gitter.im/Join%20Chat.svg)](https://gitter.im/foreverjs/forever?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge) [![Version npm](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/forever.svg?style=flat-square)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/forever)[![npm Downloads](https://img.shields.io/npm/dm/forever.svg?style=flat-square)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/forever)[![Build Status](https://img.shields.io/travis/foreverjs/forever/master.svg?style=flat-square)](https://travis-ci.org/foreverjs/forever)[![Dependencies](https://img.shields.io/david/foreverjs/forever.svg?style=flat-square)](https://david-dm.org/foreverjs/forever)[![Inline docs](http://inch-ci.org/github/foreverjs/forever.svg?branch=master)](http://inch-ci.org/github/foreverjs/forever) [![NPM](https://nodei.co/npm/forever.png?downloads=true&downloadRank=true)](https://nodei.co/npm/forever/) A simple CLI tool for ensuring that a given script runs continuously (i.e. forever). Note that this project currently fully depends on the community for implementing fixes and new features. For new installations we encourage you to use [pm2](https://pm2.keymetrics.io/) or [nodemon](https://nodemon.io/) ## Installation ``` bash $ [sudo] npm install forever -g ``` **Note:** If you are using forever _programmatically_ you should install [forever-monitor][0]. ``` bash $ cd /path/to/your/project $ [sudo] npm install forever-monitor ``` ## Usage There are two ways to use forever: through the command line or by using forever in your code. **Note:** If you are using forever _programatically_ you should install [forever-monitor][0]. ### Command Line Usage You can use forever to run scripts continuously (whether it is written in node.js or not). **Example** ``` forever start app.js ``` **Options** ``` $ forever --help usage: forever [action] [options] SCRIPT [script-options] Monitors the script specified in the current process or as a daemon actions: start Start SCRIPT as a daemon stop Stop the daemon SCRIPT by Id|Uid|Pid|Index|Script stopall Stop all running forever scripts restart Restart the daemon SCRIPT restartall Restart all running forever scripts list List all running forever scripts config Lists all forever user configuration set Sets the specified forever config clear Clears the specified forever config logs Lists log files for all forever processes logs Tails the logs for columns add Adds the specified column to the output in `forever list`. Supported columns: 'uid', 'command', 'script', 'forever', 'pid', 'id', 'logfile', 'uptime' columns rm Removed the specified column from the output in `forever list` columns set Set all columns for the output in `forever list` columns reset Resets all columns to defaults for the output in `forever list` cleanlogs [CAREFUL] Deletes all historical forever log files options: -m MAX Only run the specified script MAX times -l LOGFILE Logs the forever output to LOGFILE -o OUTFILE Logs stdout from child script to OUTFILE -e ERRFILE Logs stderr from child script to ERRFILE -p PATH Base path for all forever related files (pid files, etc.) -c COMMAND COMMAND to execute (defaults to node) -a, --append Append logs -f, --fifo Stream logs to stdout -n, --number Number of log lines to print --pidFile The pid file --uid DEPRECATED. Process uid, useful as a namespace for processes (must wrap in a string) e.g. forever start --uid "production" app.js forever stop production --id DEPRECATED. Process id, similar to uid, useful as a namespace for processes (must wrap in a string) e.g. forever start --id "test" app.js forever stop test --sourceDir The source directory for which SCRIPT is relative to --workingDir The working directory in which SCRIPT will execute --minUptime Minimum uptime (millis) for a script to not be considered "spinning" --spinSleepTime Time to wait (millis) between launches of a spinning script. --colors --no-colors will disable output coloring --plain Disable command line colors -d, --debug Forces forever to log debug output -v, --verbose Turns on the verbose messages from Forever -s, --silent Run the child script silencing stdout and stderr -w, --watch Watch for file changes --watchDirectory Top-level directory to watch from --watchIgnore To ignore pattern when watch is enabled (multiple option is allowed) -t, --killTree Kills the entire child process tree on `stop` --killSignal Support exit signal customization (default is SIGKILL), used for restarting script gracefully e.g. --killSignal=SIGTERM Any console output generated after calling `forever stop/stopall` will not appear in the logs -h, --help You're staring at it [Long Running Process] The forever process will continue to run outputting log messages to the console. ex. forever -o out.log -e err.log my-script.js [Daemon] The forever process will run as a daemon which will make the target process start in the background. This is extremely useful for remote starting simple node.js scripts without using nohup. It is recommended to run start with -o -l, & -e. ex. forever start -l forever.log -o out.log -e err.log my-daemon.js forever stop my-daemon.js ``` There are [several examples][1] designed to test the fault tolerance of forever. Here's a simple usage example: ``` bash $ forever -m 5 examples/error-on-timer.js ``` ### JSON Configuration Files In addition to passing forever the path to a script (along with accompanying options, described above), you may also pass forever the path to a JSON file containing these options. For example, consider an application with the following file structure: ``` . ├── forever │ └── development.json └── index.js // forever/development.json { // Comments are supported "uid": "app", "append": true, "watch": true, "script": "index.js", "sourceDir": "/home/myuser/app", "logFile": "/home/myuser/logs/forever.log", "outFile": "/home/myuser/logs/out.log", "errFile": "/home/myuser/logs/error.log" } ``` This application could be started with forever, as shown below: ``` bash $ forever start ./forever/development.json ``` Absolute paths to such configuration files are also supported: ``` bash $ forever start /home/myuser/app/forever/development.json ``` **Note:** Forever parses JSON configuration files using [shush](https://github.com/krakenjs/shush), allowing the use of in-line comments within such files. #### Multi-App Configuration Files JSON configuration files can also be used to define the startup options for *multiple* applications, as shown below. ``` [ { // App1 "uid": "app1", "append": true, "watch": true, "script": "index.js", "sourceDir": "/home/myuser/app1" }, { // App2 "uid": "app2", "append": true, "watch": true, "script": "index.js", "sourceDir": "/home/myuser/app2", "args": ["--port", "8081"] } ] ``` ### Using In Your Code The forever module exposes some useful methods to use in your code. Each method returns an instance of an EventEmitter which emits when complete. See the [forever cli commands][2] for sample usage. **Remark:** As of `forever@0.6.0` processes will not automatically be available in `forever.list()`. In order to get your processes into `forever.list()` or `forever list` you must instantiate the `forever` socket server: ``` js forever.startServer(child); ``` This method takes multiple `forever.Monitor` instances which are defined in the `forever-monitor` dependency. #### forever.load (config) _Synchronously_ sets the specified configuration (config) for the forever module. There are two important options: Option | Description | Default ------- | ------------------------------------------------- | --------- root | Directory to put all default forever log files | `forever.root` pidPath | Directory to put all forever *.pid files | `[root]/pids` sockPath | Directory for sockets for IPC between workers | `[root]/sock` loglength | Number of logs to return in `forever tail` | 100 columns | Array of columns to display when `format` is true | `forever.config.get('columns')` debug | Boolean value indicating to run in debug mode | false stream | Boolean value indicating if logs will be streamed | false #### forever.start (file, options) Starts a script with forever. The `options` object is what is expected by the `Monitor` of `forever-monitor`. #### forever.startDaemon (file, options) Starts a script with forever as a daemon. WARNING: Will daemonize the current process. The `options` object is what is expected by the `Monitor` of `forever-monitor`. #### forever.stop (index) Stops the forever daemon script at the specified index. These indices are the same as those returned by forever.list(). This method returns an EventEmitter that raises the 'stop' event when complete. #### forever.stopAll (format) Stops all forever scripts currently running. This method returns an EventEmitter that raises the 'stopAll' event when complete. The `format` parameter is a boolean value indicating whether the returned values should be formatted according to the configured columns which can set with `forever columns` or programmatically `forever.config.set('columns')`. #### forever.list (format, callback) Returns a list of metadata objects about each process that is being run using forever. This method will return the list of metadata as such. Only processes which have invoked `forever.startServer()` will be available from `forever.list()` The `format` parameter is a boolean value indicating whether the returned values should be formatted according to the configured columns which can set with `forever columns` or programmatically `forever.config.set('columns')`. #### forever.tail (target, options, callback) Responds with the logs from the target script(s) from `tail`. There are two options: * `length` (numeric): is is used as the `-n` parameter to `tail`. * `stream` (boolean): is is used as the `-f` parameter to `tail`. #### forever.cleanUp () Cleans up any extraneous forever *.pid files that are on the target system. This method returns an EventEmitter that raises the 'cleanUp' event when complete. #### forever.cleanLogsSync (processes) Removes all log files from the root forever directory that do not belong to current running forever processes. Processes are the value returned from `Monitor.data` in `forever-monitor`. #### forever.startServer (monitor0, monitor1, ..., monitorN) Starts the `forever` HTTP server for communication with the forever CLI. **NOTE:** This will change your `process.title`. This method takes multiple `forever.Monitor` instances which are defined in the `forever-monitor` dependency. ### Logging and output file locations By default `forever` places all of the files it needs into `/$HOME/.forever`. If you would like to change that location just set the `FOREVER_ROOT` environment variable when you are running forever: ``` FOREVER_ROOT=/etc/forever forever start index.js ``` Make sure that the user running the process has the appropriate privileges to read & write to this directory. ## Run Tests ``` bash $ npm test ``` #### License: MIT #### Author: [Charlie Robbins](https://github.com/indexzero) #### Maintainer: [Igor Savin](https://github.com/kibertoad) #### Contributors: [Fedor Indutny](https://github.com/indutny), [James Halliday](http://substack.net/), [Charlie McConnell](https://github.com/avianflu), [Maciej Malecki](https://github.com/mmalecki), [John Lancaster](http://jlank.com) [0]: https://github.com/foreverjs/forever-monitor [1]: https://github.com/foreverjs/forever-monitor/tree/master/examples [2]: https://github.com/foreverjs/forever/blob/master/lib/forever/cli.js

	Stars	Issues	Version	Updated	Created
forever	13,854	342	4.0.3	2 years ago	13 years ago
npm-run-all	5,632	105	4.1.5	5 years ago	9 years ago
npm-watch	319	19	0.13.0	7 days ago	10 years ago
onchange	810	5	7.1.0	4 years ago	10 years ago
pm2			5.3.1	4 months ago	11 years ago
supervisor			0.12.0	8 years ago	13 years ago

forever vs npm-run-all vs npm-watch vs onchange vs pm2 vs supervisor

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