Running NodeBB

The preferred way to start and stop NodeBB is by invoking its executable:

• ./nodebb start Starts the NodeBB server
• ./nodebb stop Stops the NodeBB server
• Alternatively, you may use npm start and npm stop to do the same

The methods listed below are alternatives to starting NodeBB via the executable.

Upstart

Later version of Ubuntu may utilise Upstart to manage processes at boot. Upstart also handles restarts of scripts if/when they crash.

You can use Upstart to start/stop/restart your NodeBB.

Note: Prior to NodeBB v0.7.0, Upstart processes would not track the proper pid, meaning there was no way to stop the NodeBB process. NodeBB v0.7.0 includes some changes that allow Upstart to control NodeBB more effectively.

You can utilise this Upstart configuration as a template to manage your NodeBB:

start on startup
stop on runlevel [016]
respawn
setuid someuser
setgid someuser
script
        cd /path/to/nodebb
        node loader.js --no-silent --no-daemon
end script

From there, you can start stop and restart NodeBB as the root user: start nodebb, stop nodebb, restart nodebb, assuming nodebb.conf is the name of the Upstart config file.

Simple Node.js Process

To start NodeBB, run it with node (some distributions use the executable nodejs, please adjust accordingly):

$ cd /path/to/nodebb/install
$ node app

However, bear in mind that crashes will cause the NodeBB process to halt, bringing down your forum. Consider some of the more reliable options, below:

Supervisor Process

Using the supervisor package, you can have NodeBB restart itself if it crashes:

$ npm install -g supervisor
$ supervisor app

As supervisor by default continues to pipe output to stdout, it is best suited to development builds.

Forever Daemon

Another way to keep NodeBB up is to use the forever package via the command line interface, which can monitor NodeBB and re-launch it if necessary:

$ npm install -g forever
$ forever start app.js

Grunt Development

We can utilize grunt to launch NodeBB and re-compile assets when files are changed. Start up speed is increased because we don’t compile assets that weren’t modified.

Installing Grunt

$ npm install -g grunt-cli

Run grunt to start up NodeBB and watch for code changes.

$ grunt