Can't get the pidFile option working

[catamphetamine]

Hello.
I'm using the cli tool like this:

forever --pidFile ~/processes/node.js.pid -c coffee ~/repository/code/web/main.coffee    

And it doesn't create the pid file (the ~/processes directory is empty).
Is there something wrong with this console command or is it a bug?

[evgeny-goldin]

Try instead

 forever -p ~/processes/ --pidFile node.js.pid

[catamphetamine]

Already tried this.
Still no pid file.

[evgeny-goldin]

Make sure you run the latest forever version. Here's my full command, perfectly working:

./node_modules/.bin/forever start -p /home/evgenyg/.forever --pidFile hello-coffee-port-number-3086.pid --minUptime 5000 --spinSleepTime 5000 ./node_modules/.bin/coffee server.coffee

Or could be that application being started cannot start so no PID file is created.

[catamphetamine]

When I run it like you said:

forever start -p /home/sociopathy/processes --pidFile test.pid --minUptime 5000 --spinSleepTime 5000 coffee ~/repository/code/web/main.coffee

It fails with this message

info:    Forever processing file: coffee
error:   Cannot start forever
error:   script /home/sociopathy/coffee does not exist.

[xjamundx]

The -p option is broken as per #414

[egmont1227]

for me, --pidFile is working as expected in v0.10.9

[catamphetamine]

got it working today.
my command is:

NODE_ENV=development forever start -p ~/node --pidFile ~/node/process.pid --colors --watch --watchIgnore -l log/forever.txt --append -o log/output.txt -e log/errors.txt -c coffee main.coffee

and

forever stop main.coffee

and .foreverignore:

log/*
process.pid

[guss77]

This indeed worked for me, but only after I specified both -p with the full path and --pidFile with the full path.

The following do not work, but according to the documentation it should work and that means the bug was not fixed:

• not using -p
• -p with absolute path and --pidFile with relative path

[GuyMograbi]

Wow guys, thank you so much!! This thread resolved so many bug-like errors for me.
it seems I have been using forever script.js without specifying start, and pidFile didn't work, and it didn't run like daemon and other stuff. Your thread really helped.

Personally I think forever script.js should run the same as if I wrote forever start script.js.
currently it does not and I am quite sure this should be declared a bug.

it causes people to add & at the end - a solution a lot of people know when they want daemon instead of getting built in solution from forever.. which is a shame.

instead I would add something else - like run which will cause it to run as a non-daemon process. so I will write forever run script.js..

[fresheneesz]

@kuchumovN You did not get the --pidFile argument working. All you did was use -p to set the base directory. Forever is still ignoring the pidFile option. Please reopen this issue as its still a bug.

[catamphetamine]

Well, okay, if you say i should - i will, no prob

[akhoury]

no updates since 2015?

[guss77]

This project had no updates since 2016, so it should be safely considered dead.
If you need to keep a service alive, I suggest deploying it as a SystemD service.