Starting node app at startup on raspberry pi - linux

EDIT: As per Jim Rush's advice I'm now using rc.local instead of init.d direclty to run forever start on boot up.
I'm wracking my head on this one.
I'm wanting to start a node app on the raspberry pi startup and reboot. I'm using forever to actually call the app and using init.d for the debian style start instructions.
I've created the kuuyi file within the /etc/init.d directory, given it a permission of 755 and, after editing the file, ran update-rc.d kuuyi defaults to hopefully trigger Raspbian to start it on restart/boot.
Here's my init.d file:
#!/bin/sh
#/etc/init.d/kuuyi
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: kuuyi
# Required-Start:
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Kuuyi
### END INIT INFO
case "$1" in
start)
/usr/local/bin/forever --sourceDir=/home/pi/kuuyi_device -p /root/.forever run.js
;;
stop)
/usr/local/bin/forever stop --sourceDir=/home/pi/kuuyi_device run.js
;;
*)
echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/kuuyi {start|stop}"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0
Any ideas as to why this isn't working? I'm running Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi B+. I've run /etc/init.d kuuyi start and forever kicks and begins the app just fine. Its just not happening after booting up the machine.
Any help on this is so appreciated, I'm about as wrung out as an old cheese cloth after dairy day on this one.

I run node (actually nodemon) from /etc/rc.local. Just the command line with & at the end. I also redirect stderr and stdout to log files to troubleshoot startup and crash problems. Getting the permissions right, on any directory that was written to, was one of my early problems.
Example:
PATH=$PATH:/opt/node/bin
cd /var/node/RoadsterNode
/opt/node/bin/nodemon /var/node/RoadsterNode/app.js < /dev/null >/var/tmp/startup.log 2>/var/tmp/startup.err &

Related

How to auto restart Node script - or init.d service starting that node - after crash?

I'm currently having a node.js script running on my Raspberry PI running Raspbian. That node.js script gets started at boot so I just have to plug in the board.
But, if the script would crash resulting in the exit of node, how could I make the boot service (which starts the node script at bood) auto restart itself when the node service crashed?
Here's an example of my bootservice in /etc/init.d:
#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: MyScriptService
# Required-Start: $all
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Starts my node.js script.
### END INIT INFO
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/opt/bin
. /lib/init/vars.sh
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
case "$1" in
start)
log_begin_msg "Starting my script"
node /home/pi/myscript.js
log_end_msg $?
exit 0
;;
stop)
log_begin_msg "Stopping my script"
log_end_msg $?
exit 0
;;
*)
exit 1
;;
esac
UPDATE: Been able to fix it myself within Node itself. https://stackoverflow.com/a/50413860/3037607
You probably should run your script with pm2 which is a process manager for node applications, it will restart your node program if it crashes up to a certain number of restarts.
Once you have pm2 installed change the following line on your init.d script
node /home/pi/myscript.js
to it:
pm2 start /home/pi/myscript.js
You'll also get some other niceties, like start/stop/restart your app with pm2 and some logging so you can backtrace why your app is crashing.
After searching a bit deeper in the Node possibilities I found a way to just not make the script crash, and if an exception is not caught, just restart everything:
process.on('uncaughtException', function(err){
console.log(err);
restartMyScript();
});

Unable to start Node on system reboot Ubuntu Crontab

I have tried this with adding the forever start code in /etc/rc.local didn't work.
When I use the #reboot keyword in /etc/rc.local it says #reboot cannot be found.
So I went back to using crontab Here is my crontab script. All other crontabs are working except the reboot one. In syslog, it says
Jun 4 09:51:12 ip-172-31-28-35 /usr/sbin/irqbalance: Balancing is ineffective on systems with a single cache domain. Shutting down
Jun 4 09:51:12 ip-172-31-28-35 cron[959]: (CRON) STARTUP (fork ok)
Jun 4 09:51:12 ip-172-31-28-35 cron[959]: (CRON) INFO (Running #reboot jobs)
Jun 4 09:51:12 ip-172-31-28-35 CRON[1005]: (ubuntu) CMD (/usr/bin/sudo -u ubuntu /usr/local/bin/forever start home/ubuntu/chat2/index.js)
Which shows that the reboot command in my cron tab is working but for some reason forever is still not starting node. After reboot , I run forever list and it says No forever processes running
I am assuming the problem is somehow with the node and forever paths. I am new to this and dont know which exact path to use on this statement in crontab.
I have also tried the following:
#reboot /usr/local/bin/forever start -c /usr/local/bin/node /home/ubuntu/chat2/index.js
and
#reboot /usr/local/bin/forever start /home/ubuntu/chat2/index.js
None of these are working.
If I run which forever it says
/usr/local/bin/forever
If I run which node it says
/usr/local/bin/node
If I get the full path of my index.js app file, by doing readlink -f index.js in my chat2 directory it says
/home/ubuntu/chat2/index.js
I just want to run this command every time my system reboots. I want to start my node app. The following line works perfect when I cd to the chat2 directory manually. I want this to work on reboot itself.
forever -m5000 -w start index.js
You can create a service with you code instead of using cron. Actually I prefer that because you can stop or start it whenever you want and you can also run it on the system reboot or start.
So:
1- Create a service in /etc/init.d/name_of_file
#!/bin/bash
#/etc/init.d/name_of_file
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: name
# Required-Start: $syslog
# Required-Stop: $syslog
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: add service
# Description:
#
### END INIT INFO
# Some things that run always
case "$1" in
start)
echo "Starting app_name "
touch /var/lock/app_name
cd /where/is/your/file
node index.js &
;;
stop)
echo " Stopping "
rm /var/lock/app_name
sudo pkill -f node
;;
status)
if [ -e /var/lock/app_name ]
then
echo "app_name is running"
else
echo "app_name is not running"
fi
;;
*)
echo "Usage:service app_name{start|stop|status}"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0
So after that you have created a service for running you nodejs application.
You have to give running permission to that script
chmod +x /etc/init.d/app_name
Now the only thing you have to do is configure this to run on boot.
Run:
sudo update-rc.d app_name defaults
And then every time you reboot you computer the service will start itself.
Suggest redirect stdout/stderr to file to debug why your script in crontab not work:
/usr/local/bin/forever start -c /usr/local/bin/node /home/ubuntu/chat2/index.js >/tmp/forever.log 2>&1 &
See log file for details after reboot.
You also can try pm2 , like forever but support buildin system start script generate, and will launch your apps after reboot.

Start gpsd service at reboot

I am using a GPS hat from adafruit.
According to the document
Start gpsd and direct it to use HW UART. Simply entering the following
command:
sudo gpsd /dev/ttyAMA0 -F /var/run/gpsd.sock
While this does in fact work, I am trying to find a way to automatically call this on a reboot. I've tried putting it in a .py file and calling it when the machine restarts in a cronjob but that doesn't work. (Invalid Syntax). Hoping I could be assisted in accomplishing this.
Thank you
The fastest and easiest way is to put the above command in /etc/rc.local file (without sudo!). This is a shell script invoked on boot.
A more proper way of doing this is to create a service file into /etc/init.d directory. To start see any simple file into that directory, copy and modify it and make sure is executable. Basic (untested) example:
#!/bin/sh -e
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: gpsd
# Required-Start:
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start: 1 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:
# Short-Description: Run my GPSd
### END INIT INFO
#
case "$1" in
start)
gpsd /dev/ttyAMA0 -F /var/run/gpsd.sock
;;
stop)
killall -KILL gpsd
;;
restart|force-reload)
killall -KILL gpsd
sleep 3
gpsd /dev/ttyAMA0 -F /var/run/gpsd.sock
;;
*) echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2; exit 1 ;;
esac
Once you have that make sure it is enabled on boot, so your system will automatically call service gpsd start. This is done with the update-rc.d command on Debian-base distros and systemctl on RHEL.
If you let us know your linux distro we can be more specific.

Unable to use service command with debian 8 (Jessie)

In order to install LibreOffice 4.4 into my Debian 8 (Jessie), I just got all my bash scripts from my Debian 7.5 and run them into the same way into the D8 one.
I know there was several changes into the new version but I'm not able to use my service like this anymore :
sudo service libreoffice start
When doing this doesn't start anything and I have to start it using :
sudo /etc/init.d/libreoffice start
And strange thing, when doing (bad parameter) :
sudo service libreoffice dzedjiodjzedj
...the script is perfectly executed and it displays my catched error
Here is my /etc/init.d/libreoffice file :
#
# libreoffice This shell script takes care of starting and stopping the LibreOffice Daemon
#
# chkconfig: - 80 20
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: libreofficedaemon
# Required-Start: $network $syslog
# Required-Stop: $network $syslog
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Description: Init.d script to run a LibreOffice Daemon
# Short-Description: start and stop LibreOffice Daemon
### END INIT INFO
NAME="LibreOffice Service"
LIBREOFFICE_HOME=/opt/libreoffice4.4
LIBREOFFICE_USER=libreoffice
export LIBREOFFICE_HOME LIBREOFFICE_USER
start() {
echo -ne "Starting $NAME. \n"
su $LIBREOFFICE_USER -c "$LIBREOFFICE_HOME/start.sh"
}
stop() {
echo -ne "Stopping $NAME. \n"
su $LIBREOFFICE_USER -c "$LIBREOFFICE_HOME/stop.sh"
}
kill() {
echo -ne "Force close of $NAME. "
killall -u $LIBREOFFICE_USER
}
cd $LIBREOFFICE_HOME
case "$1" in
start|stop)
$1;;
restart) stop; start;;
kill) kill;;
*)
echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/libreoffice {start|stop|restart|kill}"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0
And I just run that issue with tomcat8 service yesterday, I just started manually the service and sudo service tomcat8 start worked after that but nothing for libreoffice one..
From the Debian Jessie Release Notes :
When you are asked if any file in the /etc/init.d directory, or the /etc/manpath.config file should be replaced by the package maintainer's version, it's usually necessary to answer “yes” to ensure system consistency
With systemd you now have to use systemctl:
sudo systemctl start libreoffice
Here's some more info

How to start a Node.js app on system boot?

I'm working on a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian running a Node.js app and trying to get it to start when the Pi boots. I found a couple of examples but I can't seem to get it working. My current code is:
#! /bin/sh
# /etc/init.d/MyApp
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: MyApp.js
# Required-Start: $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop: $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Starts MyApp.js
# Description: Start / stop MyApp.js at boot / shutdown.
### END INIT INFO
# If you want a command to always run, put it here
# Carry out specific functions when asked to by the system
case "$1" in
start)
echo "Starting MyApp.js"
# run application you want to start
node /home/pi/app/MyApp/MyApp.js
;;
stop)
echo "Stopping MyApp.js"
# kill application you want to stop
killall MyApp.js
;;
*)
echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/MyApp {start|stop}"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0
I have this in the etc/init.d folder, ran chmod +x /etc/init.d/MyApp, I'm able to run it manually, then I run sudo update-rc.d MyApp defaults, reboot and the script never runs. I've looked at some different examples, made adjustments and still no luck.
I solved this problem by first checking where node.js was installed on RaspberryPi:
which node
This gave me :
/usr/local/bin/node
Open crontab config:
sudo crontab -e
Then in my crontab :
#reboot sudo /usr/local/bin/node <complete path to your .js app> &
Save, reboot, and problem solved !
Mohit is right, but just for clarification, you can use readlink to find the full path for your Node.js app as it will be needed later to add as a cron job.
readlink -f <<name of file >>
For instance readlink -f HAP-NodeJS/Core.js results in /home/pi/HAP-NodeJS/Core.js
You can also use which node to find the full path where node.js is installed
Next, create a new cron job using sudo crontab -e and add the following code at the very end:
#reboot sudo /usr/local/bin/node <<.js application path>> &
for instance, my code looks like this.
#reboot sudo /usr/local/bin/node /home/pi/HAP-NodeJS/Core.js &
Upon reboot (or start up) , your Node.js should run. Hope this clears things.
If you're using a prebuilt Pi release like 0.10.24, you may be experiencing a PATH issue.
You can either provide the full path to the node binary as part of the start command or make sure the PATH to the node binaries are set before /etc/init.d/MyApp is ran. I had the same issue and tried both with success. Also, the stop command as you have it may not be working.
#! /bin/sh
# /etc/init.d/test
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: test
# Required-Start: $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop: $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Example initscript
# Description: This file should be used to construct scripts to be
# placed in /etc/init.d.
### END INIT INFO
# Carry out specific functions when asked to by the system
case "$1" in
start)
echo "Starting test.js"
# run application you want to start
#node /home/pi/test.js > /home/pi/test.log
/home/pi/downloads/node-v0.10.24-linux-arm-pi/bin/node /home/pi/test.js >> /home/pi/test.log
;;
stop)
echo "Stopping test.js"
# kill application you want to stop
killall -9 node
# Not a great approach for running
# multiple node instances
;;
*)
echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/test {start|stop}"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0
If you'd like to do sudo node, you can add the PATH to Defaults secure_path using sudo visudo.
Also, I would recommend using something like forever to keep your process running after crashes and what not.

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