How to pass execution arguments to app using PM2?

Question

I am using pm2 to start my app but I'm not able to pass argument to it. The command I am using is pm2 start app.js -- dev. Though this works with forever.

Stormie

Answer 1

You can do as stated in this ticket: https://github.com/Unitech/pm2/issues/13

Though if you're passing the environment you may want to consider leveraging environment variables. With this you create a variable which can be accessed by any process in that environment with process.env.*.

So you have a configuration file config.json:

{
   "dev": {
        "db": {
            "hosts":["localhost"],
            "database": "api"
        },
        "redis": {
            "hosts": ["localhost"]
        }
   },
   "staging": {
        "db": {
            "hosts":["1.1.1.1"],
            "database": "api"
        },
        "redis": {
            "hosts": ["2.2.2.2"]
        }
   },
   "production": {
        "db": {
            "hosts":["1.1.1.1", "1.1.1.2", "1.1.1.3"],
            "database": "api"
        },
        "redis": {
            "hosts": ["2.2.2.2", "2.2.2.3"]
        }
   }
}

Then you import your config:

var config=require('./config.json')[process.env.NODE_ENV || 'dev'];

db.connect(config.db.hosts, config.db.database);

Then you'd set the variable in your environment via shell:

export NODE_ENV=staging
pm2 start app.js

The environment variable will last as long as your session. So you'll have to set it in the ~/.bashrc file for that user for the variable to persist. This will set the variable every session.

PM2 has a deploy system which allows you to set an environment variable each time before your app is daemonized. This is how daemons in POSIX systems typically take parameters, because those parameters aren't lost with the process. Given with your circumstance it might not matter so much, but its a good practice.

Moreover you should consider stop/starting locally, and restarting(if in cluster mode) whenever possible to prevent downtime when in production.

Irreligious

I set this up with AWS Code Deploy and my Node.JS application, and it works wonderfully. I use port 4040 locally, and 80 on AWS. This is an elegant solution to ensure my ports are set up correctly. Thank you! – Jannajannel

In your example you only set NODE_ENV to staging and db host for that is 1.1.1.1 but what if we don't know the db host until it goes to production, which is the case all the time. How do we set the db host at start up time? I'm still confused – Gaff

@Gaff I'd imagine you'd do some kind of service discovery, or read that via an env var. One trick is to make your config an actual js file and it can pull certain configs in from the environment or from discovery services(ie consul). – Irreligious

@TobiasFeil That solution is noted in the link provided. Also providing configurations via env var and file is often better practice. I mentioned both solutions and chose to detail what I felt was the better solution. No need to be rude. – Irreligious

Thanks @Irreligious - Yes that's what I need. Do you have any link that shows an example? – Gaff

@Gaff If you want to do service discovery that's highly dependent on your setup, whether you use something like consul, k8s, etc to provide service discovery, and that's hard to recommend without knowing a lot more. I made a really simple nodejs config example which pulls env vars into the config for example, do excuse my JS it's been years since I've worked with node so this might be outdated in some ways: gist.github.com/tsturzl/029d3863a3c2cdbc214a174d72c6ddb6 – Irreligious

@Gaff that example should show you how to pull in environment variables easily into the config itself. This is what I usually did when I was still working in nodejs, and I'd say this is pretty common. – Irreligious

Answer 2

If you want to pass node arguments from CLI then do

pm2 start myServer.js --node-args="--production --port=1337"

Edited

You can add any arguments after --

pm2 start app.js -- --prod --second-arg --third-arg

Sails docs for deploymemt.

Prado

This is good. But when pass it to Docker, this is not working . Can anyone , pls help me. . ENTRYPOINT ["pm2"] CMD ["start", "msg/myServer.js", "--node-args='--firstarg'","--no-daemon"] – Above

@RajRajen: If you're using docker I feel like running PM2 isn't your best option. Either let Docker monitor your app, and use its restart policy to keep your app alive, or use something like supervisord so your container doesn't have to restart every time your app goes down. When you run PM2 in docker you lose a lot of the useful features of PM2 and all it really does is keep your app alive. At that point using forever or an init system would do just as well, and probably be easier. Supervisord is extremely common for docker containers running more than 1 service per container. – Irreligious

For docker you can use the dedicated PM2 command, pm2-docker. More informations here: pm2.keymetrics.io/docs/usage/docker-pm2-nodejs – Clew

Just want to note that in the json config file, the field names are args and node-args – Miche

Acording to pm2.keymetrics.io/docs/usage/quick-start you only need to add -- and anything after will be passed as arguments; there is no need for -x; -x means to execute a command using the fork system – Amygdala

Just adding that just because you can use PM2 in Docker doesn't mean you have to. Different use cases, different tools. – Avocation

Answer 3

It is possible to define arguments with the process.

You can define a new process in ecosystem.config.js with an args key, like so:

{
  name            : 'my-service',
  script          : './src/service.js',
  args            : 'firstArg secondArg',
},
{
  name            : 'my-service-alternate',
  script          : './src/service.js',
  args            : 'altFirstArg altSecondArg',
}

Here, the two processes use the same file (service.js), but pass different arguments to it.

Note that these arguments are handled within service.js. In my case I just used process.argv[2] to get the first argument, and so on.

Cadency

This is a better solution if you want ongoing (persistent) configuration. I think you missed the part about how to use ecosystem.config.js. Such as pm2 start ecosystem.config.js – Cristinecristiona

Answer 4

I have tested and it works in my windows machine. Below is the complete solution to pass arguments to nodejs app using pm2.

** There are also 2 types of argument

1. node-args - to use before npm start
2. args - to use in your node program

There are 2 ways to pass arguments with pm2.

Option 1: pass by argument with pm2 commands.

Option 2: by using config file e.g ecosystem.config.js

Option 1 (Pass arg by commands):

pm2 start app/myapp1.js --node-args="--max-http-header-size=80000" -- arg1 arg2

//Access the arg as below in your node program.
console.log(process.argv[2]); // arg1
console.log(process.argv[3]); // arg2

Option 2 (Using config file): If you are using ecosystem.config.js. you can define with the following configuration:

    {
      name: 'my-app',
      script: 'app\\myapp1.js',
      env: {
        NODE_ENV: 'DEV',
        PORT : 5051
      },
      node_args: '--max-http-header-size=80000',
      args : 'arg1 arg2',
      instances: 1,
      exec_mode: 'fork'
    }

To start as dev mode:

pm2 start --name myapp  app/myapp1.js -- .\ecosystem.config.js

To start as production mode, just add --env=production

pm2 start --name myapp  app/myapp1.js -- .\ecosystem.config.js --env=production 

//Access the arg as below in your node program.
console.log(process.argv[2]); // arg1
console.log(process.argv[3]); // arg2

Crenation

Answer 5

You can send arguments to your script by passing them after --. For example: pm2 start app.js -i max -- -a 23 // Pass arguments after -- to app.js

Alby

Answer 6

You can pass args for node just like that:

NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0 NODE_ENV=dev pm2 start server.js --name web-server

Manslayer

Answer 7

I always use PM2 to run my python scripts in Linux environment. So consider a script has a single parameter and needs to run continously after some amount if time, then we can pass it like this:

pm2 start <filename.py> --name <nameForJob> --interpreter <InterpreterName> --restart-delay <timeinMilliseconds> -- <param1> <param2>

filename.py is Name of the python script, without <> symbols, I want to run using PM2
nameForJob is the Meaningful name for the job, without <> symbols
InterpreterName is the python interpreter for running script, usually it is python3 in linux
timeinMilliseconds is the time our script needs to wait and re-run again
param1 is the first parameter for the script
param2 is the second parameter for the script.

Panthea

Answer 8

Well there are 2 ways you can do to pass the parameters from pm2 to nodejs in CLI:

• pm2 start app.js -- dev --port=1234 (note there is an extra space between -- and dev)
• pm2 start app.js --node-args="dev --port=1234"

Both ways, you will find these values exist in process.argv (['dev','--port=1234'])

Oahu

When I run the first option it shows: error: unknown option --port – Everglades

Answer 9

I'll complement the answers above for npm scripts

For npm scripts

// package.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "pm2 start --node-args=\"-r dotenv/config\" index.js"
  }
}

npm run start runs pm2 start for index.js with node-args -r dotenv/config which include environment variables from .env file with dotenv

Acanthoid

How can you pass an additional custom variable into this script? – Massasoit

I see this. Script not found: C:\Users\user_name\Documents\ProjectName\dotenv\config" – Fetation

Answer 10

From the pm2 docs

//Inject what is declared in env_production
$ pm2 start app.js --env production 

//Inject what is declared in env_staging
$ pm2 restart app.js --env staging

Mastrianni

Answer 11

You need to start pm2 with something like: pm2 start app.js --name "app_name" -- arg1 arg2

Then in your code, you can get your args with: console.log(process.argv);

process.argv is a list like this: [ '/usr/local/bin/node', '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/lib/ProcessContainerFork.js', 'arg1', 'arg2' ]

Lordsandladies