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I want to run my simple Node server as a background process within my Docker container but when I try and fire it up using forever I get the following:

fs.js:432
  return binding.open(pathModule._makeLong(path), stringToFlags(flags), mode);
                 ^
Error: ENOENT, no such file or directory '/.forever/9Spa.log'

So I tried just making a folder called .forever in my current working directory but then I got pretty much the same error (the *.log file has a different name each time I run it, as expected.)

If I run my server without using forever it runs fine without any errors. E.g:

node server

or

npm start

both work fine, but of course don't run in the background.

I get the same error just running

forever list

So the issue it clearly with forever and not my server code.

npm list -g shows that forever is installed.

I am using a Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS image in my Docker container.

I'm open to suggestions.

update

I finally got forever to run my making a .forever folder in /home/testuser and within that a pids folder, then running the following:

forever start -p /home/testuser/.forever --pidFile /home/testuser/.forever/pids/server.pid server.js

According to the docs

-p PATH Base path for all forever related files (pid files, etc.)

However that's not quite true. I was forced to specify the absolute path for the --pidFile

So, hooray, my server is running as a background process. However the following still break:

forever stop server.js

=> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/lib/forever.js:634 var procs = processes.filter(function (p) { ^ TypeError: Object Error: EACCES, mkdir '/.forever' has no method 'filter' at Object.forever.findByScript (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/lib/forever.js:634:25) at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/lib/forever.js:189:20 at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/lib/forever.js:136:14 at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/lib/forever.js:89:20 at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/node_modules/utile/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:34:29 at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/node_modules/utile/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:46:53 at Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15) 

forever stop -p /home/bit2bit/.forever server.js

same result

forever list

==> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/lib/forever.js:683 procs.forEach(function (proc) { ^ TypeError: Object Error: EACCES, mkdir '/.forever' has no method 'forEach' at Object.forever.format (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/lib/forever.js:683:11) at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/lib/forever.js:520:28 at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/lib/forever.js:136:14 at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/lib/forever.js:89:20 at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/node_modules/utile/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:34:29 at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/forever/node_modules/utile/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:46:53 at Object.oncomplete (fs.js:107:15)

So, while I can now start my server, I can't stop it again.

Dave Sag
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  • so it turns out simply ensuring there is a `/.forever` folder and `/.forever/pids` folder (by making them when the `Dockerfile` is building) means I can happily just run `forever start server.js` and `forever list` etc. – Dave Sag Aug 13 '14 at 23:58

1 Answers1

2

Where does forever store console.log output?

try adding a -o argument to specify where the log will be output to.

Community
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Sam Hodge
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  • Thanks Sam, that worked - I needed to create my own `logs` folder and specify the absolute path to the logs as follows `forever -l /home/testuser/logs/server.log -o /home/testuser/logs/out.log -e /home/testuser/logs/err.log` for it to work. – Dave Sag Aug 13 '14 at 03:11
  • Alas on further investigation all that did was force `forever` to log the same error message into the specified log file. I've since discovered a whole lot more and will update my question with the details. – Dave Sag Aug 13 '14 at 23:05