How do I automatically start a node/express app (with pm2), having node installed using software collections (scl), on CentOS7

Question

1. Summarize the problem

I would like for a node/express app.js to listen on a port 3000, on container startup.

I created a CentOS 7 Docker container, installed the software collections (SCL) repo, and then installed node.

I can now enable node with: scl enable rh-nodejs10 bash, and so I did, and then installed express (globally), and pm2 (globally), and can successfully run a minimal express app listening on port 3000 with commands I run at the command line.

I put scl enable rh-nodejs10 bash in my .bash_profile (of a user I created named: www - because I do not want root running the web server).

In fact, I will be building a rootless container (buildah), next after this, so there will be no 'root' user at all for security concerns.

Now on container startup I want to have the web server start automatically, and be able to get a response from: http://localhost:3000 (hello world).

The problem is that on container startup, node is not enabled for any user until a shell is invoked to enable it.

2. Provide background including what you've already tried

I have searched the web for a solution of using node, express, pm2 in conjunction with CentOS 7 software collections and have found no solution.

Please only reply if you have actually tried the solution your recommend, and have it working, otherwise it most likely will not work.

systemd needs to:

1. enable node
2. run pm2 start app

I tried putting both in a shell, but when you enable node, you are then put in a sub-shell and cannot script any additional commands.

3. show some code

scl enable rh-nodejs10 bash

4. Describe expected and actual results including any error messages

I expect the node/express server to listen on port 3000 on container startup.

Answer 1

I have node running on reboot on RHEL 7 by using scl-utils/scl_source technique found here

$ cat /etc/profile.d/enablenodejs.sh
#!/bin/bash
source scl_source enable rh-nodejs10