Serve static file over http

PM2 can serve static file very easily with the pm2 serve feature. It support serving raw files from a specified folder or you can serve a SPA (Single Page Application) with it.

CLI

Serve your static files (like a frontend app) over http with a simple command :

pm2 serve <path> <port>

The current folder will be used if you don’t precise <path>, for the port the default one is 8080 (it can also be set with --port <port>). The server listens on 0.0.0.0. You can use the same options as a normal application like --name or --watch.

Process file

You can declare in a process file that you want a special dir to be served, to do so :

module.exports = {
  script: "serve",
  env: {
    PM2_SERVE_PATH: '.',
    PM2_SERVE_PORT: 8080
  }
}

You just need to add PM2_SERVE_PATH and PM2_SERVE_PORT to env variables to specify the path and the port, the default are the same as the CLI. Set PM2_SERVE_HOST to bind another interface than 0.0.0.0 (e.g. 127.0.0.1).

Serving SPA: redirect all to index.html

To automatically redirect all queries to the index.html use the --spa option:

pm2 serve --spa

Via a process file:

module.exports = {
  script: "serve",
  env: {
    PM2_SERVE_PATH: '.',
    PM2_SERVE_PORT: 8080,
    PM2_SERVE_SPA: 'true',
    PM2_SERVE_HOMEPAGE: './index.html'
  }
}

Protect access with password

To basic protect the access to the exposed files you can use the --basic-auth-username and --basic-auth-password:

pm2 serve --basic-auth-username <username> --basic-auth-password <password>

Via a process file:

module.exports = {
  script: "serve",
  env: {
    PM2_SERVE_PATH: '.',
    PM2_SERVE_PORT: 8080,
    PM2_SERVE_BASIC_AUTH: 'true',
    PM2_SERVE_BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME: 'example-login',
    PM2_SERVE_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD: 'example-password'
  }
}

Directory listing

To list the content of directories (like python -m http.server) use the --ftp option. A folder containing an index.html serves it, other folders display a file listing:

pm2 serve --ftp

Via a process file, set PM2_SERVE_FTP: 'true' in env.

Frontend monitoring

With a PM2 instance linked to PM2 Plus, --monitor <app-name> injects the PM2 Plus browser monitoring snippet into every served HTML file:

pm2 serve --monitor my-frontend

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Expose static file over http