Template of an _upstart_ script for a node.js app.

template-upstart-script-node-app.conf

description     "your description"
author          "your name <[email protected]>"

# Environment variables
env APP_CONFIG=/home/web/app/config.json
env APP_USER=myapp
env APP_SCRIPT=/home/web/app/index.js
env NODE_ENV=production
env PID_FILE=/var/run/app.pid
env STDERR_LOG_FILE=/var/log/app/stderr.log
env STDOUT_LOG_FILE=/var/log/app/stdout.log

# When to start the service
start on runlevel [2345]

# When to stop the service
stop on runlevel [016]

# If the process quits unexpectedly trigger a respawn
respawn

# respawn the job up to 3 times within a 30 second period.
# If the job exceeds these values, it will be stopped and
# marked as failed.
respawn limit 3 30

# Start the process
exec start-stop-daemon --start --chuid $APP_USER --make-pidfile --pidfile $PID_FILE --exec /usr/local/bin/node -- $APP_SCRIPT >> $STDOUT_LOG_FILE 2>> $STDERR_LOG_FILE 

# Clean after stopping the process
post-stop script
  rm $PID_FILE
end script