node.js init.d script for CentOS with pidfile

node.sh

#!/bin/sh

#
# chkconfig: 35 99 99
# description: Node.js /home/nodejs/sample/app.js
#
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

# Creamos un fichero PID para monit
SCRIPT="$(basename $0)"
PIDFILE="/var/run/$SCRIPT.pid"
ps -fe | grep "$SCRIPT" | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f 6 > ${PIDFILE}

USER="node"

DAEMON="/usr/local/bin/node"
ROOT_DIR="/var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/mywebapp"

SERVER="$ROOT_DIR/app.js"
LOG_FILE="$ROOT_DIR/app.js.log"

LOCK_FILE="/var/lock/subsys/node-server"

do_start()
{
        if [ ! -f "$LOCK_FILE" ] ; then
                echo -n $"Starting $SERVER: "
                runuser -l "$USER" -c "$DAEMON $SERVER >> $LOG_FILE &" && echo_success || echo_failure
                RETVAL=$?
                echo
                [ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && touch $LOCK_FILE
        else
                echo "$SERVER is locked."
                RETVAL=1
        fi
}
do_stop()
{
        echo -n $"Stopping $SERVER: "
        PID=`ps -fe | grep "$SCRIPT" | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f 6`
        kill -9 $PID > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo_success || echo_failure
        if [ -f ${PIDFILE} ]; then
        rm ${PIDFILE}
        fi
        RETVAL=$?
        echo
        [ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && rm -f $LOCK_FILE
}

case "$1" in
        start)
                do_start
                ;;
        stop)
                do_stop
                ;;
        restart)
                do_stop
                do_start
                ;;
        *)
                echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
                RETVAL=1
esac

exit $RETVAL
</pre>

Now it creates a pidfile in /var/run on start and removes it on stop. This is useful in order to control the script with monit.
I have also changed the way to obtain the pid in order to kill the process and now it uses the name of the script itself, not the combination of node + webapp paths.

You have a dangling </pre> on line 67. Otherwise, I'm off to give this a spin! Thanks!

Why kill -9 on stop instead of kill -TERM? Kill -9 doesn't give the process a chance to clean up and shut down.