Node js Upstart script file read

Question

I am working on EC2 instance and I have placed my node application project in the /var/www/. I am using upstart script to start the node application. The upstart script is placed in /etc/init/. In the application I am parsing a file as below to access config vars:

var _conf = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('./config/config.json'));

When I run the app in foreground with the command node app.js it works fine. It is able to parse the file into JSON. But when I run the upstart script the following error is thrown.

fs.js:549
  return binding.open(pathModule._makeLong(path), stringToFlags(flags), mode);
                                                  ^

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open './config/config.json'
    at Error (native)
    at Object.fs.openSync (fs.js:549:18)
    at Object.fs.readFileSync (fs.js:397:15)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/var/www/machaao-api/node_modules/machaao-kafka/index.js:3:27)
    at Module._compile (module.js:435:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:442:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:311:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:366:17)
    at require (module.js:385:17)
[2015-12-09T07:52:05.257Z] (sys) Starting

Below is my upstart script:

#!upstart
description "API Server"
author      "Author"

start on startup
stop on shutdown

respawn
respawn limit 5 20

script
        echo "script started..." >> /var/log/project.log
        echo $$ > /var/run/project-api.pid
        exec node /var/www/project-api/app.js >> /var/log/project-api.log 2>&1
end script

pre-start script
        echo "Pre-start script started..."
        echo "[`date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%T.%3NZ`] (sys) Starting" >> /var/log/project-api.log
end script

pre-stop script
        echo "Pre-stop script started..."
        rm /var/run/project-api.pid
        echo "[`date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%T.%3NZ`] (sys) Stopping" >> /var/log/project-api.log
end script

Can someone explain what is the issue? It says no such file or directory when I know it is there. I am a novice linux user. Is this because of some permission issues?

You should post the upstart script. – michelem Dec 09 '15 at 08:08 — michelem, Dec 09 '15 at 08:08
I have added the upstart script in edit – XCEPTION Dec 09 '15 at 08:17 — XCEPTION, Dec 09 '15 at 08:17

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 09 '15 at 08:20

1

Probably you need only to cd into the node directory and start it from there:

exec cd /var/www/project-api && node app.js >> /var/log/project-api.log 2>&1

You could also change the app script to get the absolute path so you don't need to cd into the directory:

var fs = require('fs');
var path = require('path');

var _conf = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, 'config/config.json')));

console.log(_conf);

answered Dec 09 '15 at 08:20

michelem

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The code snippet `var path = require('path'); var _conf = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, 'config/config.json')));` Helped me resolve my issue – XCEPTION Dec 09 '15 at 09:31

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 09 '15 at 08:34

I'm not sure at the moment how node resolves such a relative paths so maybe try something like this, before parsing the json

var path = require('path');
console.log(path.resolve('./config/config.json'));

and see if it prints an absolute path you wish it to be.

Node js Upstart script file read

2 Answers2