node-launchd

A Node.js Addon to get sockets from launchd upon (port-activated) launching on osx

Usage

Suppose, you created an app using express in directory

/Users/you/Projects/yourapp

, and your node installation lives in

/Users/you/Applications/Node.app/Contents

and you want your app to use port 8080.

First, create a launchd configuration file (e.g., yourapp.plist) in

~/Library/LaunchAgents

, fill it with content such as this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.something.yourapp</string>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
        <dict>
            <key>NODE_PATH</key>
            <string>/Users/you/Applications/Node.app/Contents/lib/node_modules</string>
        </dict>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/you/Applications/Node.app/Contents/bin/node</string>
        <string>/Users/you/Projects/yourapp/app.js</string>
    </array>
    <key>Sockets</key>
    <dict>
        <key>HTTPSocket</key>
        <dict>
            <key>SockFamily</key>
            <string>IPv4</string>
            <key>SockServiceName</key>
            <string>8080</string>
            <key>SockType</key>
            <string>stream</string>
            <key>SockPassive</key>
            <string>false</string>
        </dict>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

change the app.js file in you project directory to start the http server using a launchd file handle like this

http.createServer(app).listen({fd:require('node-launchd').getSocketFileDescriptorForName('HTTPSocket')});

Finally, you can load the launchd configuration file like this

launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/yourapp.plist