<p>I find Node-RED really amazing but the lack of being able to manage it as a daemon quite annoyed me.</p>
<p>I created an init script and a systemd unit configuration to be able to manage Node-RED as any service on my Raspberry Pi.</p>
<p><span id="more-105"></span></p>
<h1>Init.d</h1>
<script src="https://gist.github.com/cf91100f81f2b37b3e94.js"></script><noscript><pre><code class="language-shell shell">#!/bin/bash
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: node-red
# Required-Start: $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# Required-Stop: $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start or stop the node-red server
### END INIT INFO
# Can be downloaded and installed in one go by using this command
# sudo wget -O /tmp/download https://gist.github.com/Belphemur/cf91100f81f2b37b3e94/download &;&; sudo tar -zxf /tmp/download --strip-components 1 -C /etc/init.d &;&; sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/node-red &;&; sudo update-rc.d node-red defaults

# User that launches node-RED (it&#039;s advised to create a new user for Node-RED)
# You can do : sudo useradd node-red
# then change the USER=root by USER=node-red
# if you change the user, don&#039;t forget to also change the ownership of the log file (and create it if it doesn&#039;t exist):
# sudo chown NEWUSER /var/log/node-red.log
# else the log won&#039;t be writtable
USER=root

# The location of Node-RED configuration, not mandatory, leave empty/commented to let 
# Node-RED decides.

#USER_DIR=&#039;/home/pi/node-red/&#039;


# DONT&#039;T CHANGE unless you know what you&#039;re doing
NAME=node-red
DAEMON=/usr/local/bin/node-red-pi
OPTIONS=";--max-old-space-size=128";

if [ -n ";$USER_DIR"; ]; then
	OPTIONS=";$OPTIONS --userDir=$USER_DIR";
fi

LOG=&#039;/var/log/node-red.log&#039;

PIDFILE=/var/run/node-red.pid

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

start_daemon () {
 start-stop-daemon --start --background \
 --chuid $USER --name $NAME \
 $START_STOP_OPTIONS --make-pidfile --pidfile $PIDFILE \
 --startas /bin/bash -- -c ";exec $DAEMON $OPTIONS >;>; $LOG 2>;&;1";
 log_end_msg 0
}

case ";$1"; in
 start)
 log_daemon_msg ";Starting daemon"; ";$NAME";
 start_daemon

 ;;
 stop)
 log_daemon_msg ";Stopping daemon"; ";$NAME";
 start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet \
 --chuid $USER \
 --exec $DAEMON --pidfile $PIDFILE --retry 30 \
 --oknodo || log_end_msg $?
 log_end_msg 0
 ;;
 restart)
			$0 stop
			sleep 5
			$0 start
		;;
		status)
 status_of_proc ";$DAEMON"; ";$NAME";
 exit $?
 ;;

 *)
 echo ";Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}";
 exit 1
esac
exit 0
</code></pre></noscript>
<h1>systemd</h1>
<script src="https://gist.github.com/3f6d3bf211b0e8a18d93.js"></script><noscript><pre><code class="language-desktop desktop"># This script work on any system using systemd as the init process.
# It works on Debian/Raspbian Jessie.
# If you have Debian/Rapbian Wheezy and want to use this script with systemd 
# follow the information here : https://wiki.debian.org/systemd

# To easily download, install and set at startup:
# wget -O /tmp/download https://gist.github.com/Belphemur/3f6d3bf211b0e8a18d93/download &;&; sudo tar -zxf /tmp/download --strip-components 1 -C /etc/systemd/system/ &;&; sudo systemctl --reload-daemon &;&; sudo systemctl enable Node-RED

# To consult the log : journalctl -u Node-RED
[Unit]
Description=Node-RED is a tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.
After=syslog.target network.target
Documentation=http://nodered.org/

[Service]
Environment=";NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=128";
Environment=";NODE_RED_OPTIONS=-v";
#Full Path to Node.js
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node $NODE_OPTIONS red.js $NODE_RED_OPTIONS
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/node-red/
# User/Group that launches node-RED (it&#039;s advised to create a new user for Node-RED)
# You can do : sudo useradd node-red
# then change the User=root by User=node-red
User=root
Group=root
Nice=10
SyslogIdentifier=Node-RED
StandardOutput=syslog
# Make Node-RED restart if it fails
Restart=on-failure
# Node-RED need a SIGINT to be notified to stop
KillSignal=SIGINT

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
</code></pre></noscript>
<p> ;</p>

Antoine Aflalo
I was basically born with a computer; I've been dabbling with computers since I was six years old. I love technology and do my best to share all that I learn in this blog. Here, you'll find posts about the tech I use, or have used, and the various projects I work on. It'll always be related to technology in some way or another. Read More…
16th November 2015 at 04:05
I had better luck with the auto install when running it this way:
sudo apt-get install zip unzip
sudo wget -O /tmp/download https://gist.github.com/Belphemur/cf91100f81f2b37b3e94/download && sudo unzip -j /tmp/download -d /etc/init.d && sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/node-red && sudo update-rc.d node-red defaults
16th November 2015 at 04:56
Hello Richard,
I admit I assumed most configuration came with unzip installed.
But you’re right, the first step is needed if you don’t have unzip installed.