Why can't my css/js files be found when systemd restarts my node.js app?

Question

I have node.js app that I'm trying to deploy in production mode using systemd to restart it should the server crash/reboot. The app works fine when I start it using 'node app.js' (i.e. all my public files are found). However, when I kill the process and systemd restarts it, Express can no longer locate my css/js files. I'm using connect-assets to concatenate my css/js files.

I think think the problem is my node path, but I'm not entirely sure. This is the error that I see in my browser when systemd restarts the app:

500 Error ...
> 11| != css('styles')
12| != js('application')
No file found for route css/styles.css

When I examine the process that I manually started using the 'node app.js' command I see:

ghost   30222  6.8 17.8 140348 90848 pts/0    Sl+  18:01   0:08 node app.js

And when systemd restarts the app I see the following:

ghost   30332  5.5  9.1  94036 46516 ?        Ssl  18:05   0:01 /usr/local/bin/node /home/ghost/myapp/app.js

Here is my service file:

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node /home/ghost/myapp/app.js 
Restart=always
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=node-sample
User=ghost
Group=ghost
Environment=NODE_ENV=production

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Answer 1

You need to set WorkingDirectory= to the top-level directory of your Node app, wherever that is.

For example:

WorkingDirectory=/home/ghost/myapp

or for global-installed apps,

WorkingDirectory=/usr/lib/node_modules/myapp