Ecosystem File

Configuration File

When managing multiple applications with PM2, use a JS configuration file to organize them.

Generate configuration

To generate a sample configuration file you can type this command:

$ pm2 init simple

This will generate a sample ecosystem.config.js:

module.exports = {
  apps : [{
    name   : "app1",
    script : "./app.js"
  }]
}

If you are creating your own configuration file, make sure it ends with .config.js so PM2 is able to recognize it as a configuration file.

Acting on Configuration File

Seamlessly than acting on an app you can start/stop/restart/delete all apps contained in a configuration file:

# Start all applications
pm2 start ecosystem.config.js

# Stop all
pm2 stop ecosystem.config.js

# Restart all
pm2 restart ecosystem.config.js

# Reload all
pm2 reload ecosystem.config.js

# Delete all
pm2 delete ecosystem.config.js

Act on a specific process

You can also act on a particular application by using its name and the option --only <app_name>:

pm2 start   ecosystem.config.js --only api-app

Note: the --only option works for start/restart/stop/delete as well

You can even specify multiple apps to be acted on by specifying each app name separated by a comma:

pm2 start ecosystem.config.js --only "api-app,worker-app"

Switching environments

You can specify different environment variable set via the env_* option.

Example:

module.exports = {
  apps : [{
    name   : "app1",
    script : "./app.js",
    env_production: {
       NODE_ENV: "production"
    },
    env_development: {
       NODE_ENV: "development"
    }
  }]
}

Now to switch between variables in different environment, specify the --env [env name] option:

pm2 start process.json --env production
pm2 restart process.json --env development

Attributes available

Application behavior and configuration can be fine-tuned with the following attributes:

General

Field Type Example Description
name (string) “my-api” application name (default to script filename without extension)
script (string) ”./api/app.js” script path relative to pm2 start
cwd (string) “/var/www/” the directory from which your app will be launched
args (string) “-a 13 -b 12” string containing all arguments passed via CLI to script
interpreter (string) “/usr/bin/python” interpreter absolute path (default to node)
interpreter_args (string) ”–harmony” option to pass to the interpreter
node_args (string)   alias to interpreter_args

Advanced features

Field Type Example Description
instances number -1 number of app instance to be launched
exec_mode string “cluster” mode to start your app, can be “cluster” or “fork”, default fork
watch boolean or [] true enable watch & restart feature, if a file change in the folder or subfolder, your app will get reloaded
ignore_watch list [”[\/\\]\./”, “node_modules”] list of regex to ignore some file or folder names by the watch feature
max_memory_restart string “150M” your app will be restarted if it exceeds the amount of memory specified. human-friendly format : it can be “10M”, “100K”, “2G” and so on…
env object {“NODE_ENV”: “development”, “ID”: “42”} env variables which will appear in your app
env_ object {“NODE_ENV”: “production”, “ID”: “89”} inject when doing pm2 restart app.yml --env
appendEnvToName boolean true default to false. Use to deploy multiple environments on a single server. It will append each env to name. ex) my-api-production
source_map_support boolean true default to true, [enable/disable source map file]
instance_var string “NODE_APP_INSTANCE” see documentation
filter_env array of string [ “REACT_” ] Excludes global variables starting with “REACT_” and will not allow their penetration into the cluster.

Log files

Field Type Example Description
log_date_format (string) “YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm Z” log date format (see log section)
error_file (string)   error file path (default to $HOME/.pm2/logs/<app name>-error-<pid>.log)
out_file (string)   output file path (default to $HOME/.pm2/logs/<app name>-out-<pid>.log)
log_file (string)   file path for both output and error logs (disabled by default)
combine_logs boolean true if set to true, avoid to suffix logs file with the process id
merge_logs boolean true alias to combine_logs
time boolean false false by default. If true auto prefixes logs with Date
pid_file (string)   pid file path (default to $HOME/.pm2/pids/<app name>-<pid>.pid)

Control flow

Field Type Example Description
min_uptime (number)   min uptime of the app to be considered started
listen_timeout number 8000 time in ms before forcing a reload if app not listening
kill_timeout number 1600 time in milliseconds before sending a final SIGKILL
shutdown_with_message boolean false shutdown an application with process.send(‘shutdown’) instead of process.kill(pid, SIGINT)
wait_ready boolean false Instead of reload waiting for listen event, wait for process.send(‘ready’)
max_restarts number 10 number of consecutive unstable restarts (less than 1sec interval or custom time via min_uptime) before your app is considered errored and stop being restarted
restart_delay number 4000 time to wait before restarting a crashed app (in milliseconds). defaults to 0.
autorestart boolean false true by default. if false, PM2 will not restart your app if it crashes or ends peacefully
cron_restart string “1 0 * * *” a cron pattern to restart your app. Application must be running for cron feature to work
vizion boolean false true by default. if false, PM2 will start without vizion features (versioning control metadata)
post_update list [“npm install”, “echo launching the app”] a list of commands which will be executed after you perform a Pull/Upgrade operation from Keymetrics dashboard
force boolean true defaults to false. if true, you can start the same script several times which is usually not allowed by PM2

Deployment

Entry name Description Type Default
key SSH key path String $HOME/.ssh
user SSH user String  
host SSH host [String]  
ssh_options SSH options with no command-line flag, see ‘man ssh’ String or [String]  
ref GIT remote/branch String  
repo GIT remote String  
path path in the server String  
pre-setup Pre-setup command or path to a script on your local machine String  
post-setup Post-setup commands or path to a script on the host machine String  
pre-deploy-local pre-deploy action String  
post-deploy post-deploy action String  

Considerations

All command line options passed when using the JSON app declaration will be dropped i.e.

CWD

cwd: your JSON declaration does not need to reside with your script. If you wish to maintain the JSON(s) in a location other than your script (say, /etc/pm2/conf.d/node-app.json) you will need to use the cwd feature (Note, this can be really helpful for capistrano style directory structures that uses symlinks). Files can be either relative to the cwd directory, or absolute (see example below).

CLI/JSON options

All the keys can be used in a JSON configured file, but will remain almost the same on the command line e.g.:

exec_mode         -> --execute-command
max_restarts      -> --max-restarts
force             -> --force

Using quotes to make an ESC, e.g.:

$pm2 start test.js --node-args "port=3001 sitename='first pm2 app'"

The nodeArgs argument will be parsed as

[
  "port=3001",
  "sitename=first pm2 app"
]

but not

[
  "port=3001",
  "sitename='first",
  "pm2",
  "app'"
]

Disabling logs

You can pass /dev/null to error_file or out_file to disable logs saving. Note: starting PM2 2.4.0, /dev/null or NULL disable logs independently of the platform.

Logs suffix

You can disable automatic ID suffixes on logs (e.g. app-name-ID.log) by passing enabling the option merge_logs: true

Environment definition

You’ll need to use --env <envname> to tell pm2 to use specific environment defined inside a process file :

{
  "apps" : [{
    "name"        : "worker-app",
    "script"      : "./worker.js",
    "watch"       : true,
    "env": {
      "NODE_ENV": "development"
    },
    "env_production" : {
       "NODE_ENV": "production"
    }
  },{
    "name"       : "api-app",
    "script"     : "./api.js",
    "instances"  : 4,
    "exec_mode"  : "cluster"
  }]
}

In this example, you will run pm2 start ecosystem.json and it will start your application with the default environment (in development so). Then you use pm2 start ecosystem.json --env production and it will use the attribute env_<name> where name is production here, so it will start your app with NODE_ENV=production.

Special ext_type

  • min_uptime Value of min_uptime can be:
    • Number e.g. "min_uptime": 3000 means 3000 milliseconds.
    • String Therefore, we are making it short and easy to configure: h, m and s, e.g.: "min_uptime": "1h" means one hour, "min_uptime": "5m" means five minutes and "min_uptime": "10s" means ten seconds (those will be transformed into milliseconds).
  • max_memory_restart Value of max_memory_restart can be:
    • Number e.g. "max_memory_restart": 1024 means 1024 bytes (NOT BITS).
    • String Therefore, we are making it short and easy to configure: G, M and K, e.g.: "max_memory_restart": "1G" means one gigabyte, "max_memory_restart": "5M" means five megabytes and "max_memory_restart": "10K" means ten kilobytes (those will be transformed into byte(s)).
  • Optional values For example exec_mode can take cluster (cluster_mode) or fork (fork_mode) as possible values.

  • Things to know
    • "instances": 0 means that PM2 will launch the maximum processes possible according to the numbers of CPUs (cluster mode)
    • array args, node_args and ignore_watch could be type of Array (e.g.: "args": ["--toto=heya coco", "-d", "1"]) or string (e.g.: "args": "--to='heya coco' -d 1")
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