Passing command line arguments to Node?

[grahamb]

Issue report

Question 1: What is the problem?
There doesn't seem to be a way to pass command-line arguments to node when invoked by Passenger.

Example: Since NodeJS v20.6.0, node supports an --env-file .env option. The .env file will be parsed into process.env. This reduces the need to depend on third-party modules like dotenv.

I can not find any configuration options to tell Passenger to use the --env-file argument when it invokes node.

I tried using PassengerAppStartCommand set to /usr/local/bin/node --env-file /path/to/app/.env /path/to/app/index.js. This launched the app, but not in the usual way. I could curl is on its native port (3000), but apache was not serving the app on port 80.

Question 2: Passenger version and integration mode:
Passenger 6.0.23, Apache httpd integration

Question 3: OS or Linux distro, platform (including version):
Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 9.4 (Plow)

Question 4: Passenger installation method:

Your answer:
Phusion YUM repo

Question 5: Your app's programming language (including any version managers) and framework (including versions):
NodeJS 20.17.0, Express 4.19.2

[CamJN]

I recommend using env vars to pass flags to node.

For example:
SetEnv NODE_OPTIONS "--env-file /path/to/app/.env"

more info:
https://nodejs.org/api/cli.html#cli_node_options_options
https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_env.html#setenv

[grahamb]

Unfortunately, you can't pass --env-file via NODE_OPTIONS because you can specify NODE_OPTIONS in an .env file. nodejs/node#51147

 /tmp/foo > NODE_OPTIONS="--env-file=.env" node
node: --env-file= is not allowed in NODE_OPTIONS

[CamJN]

Ah, that sucks, well then I guess the only way forward is to use the Generic Language Support feature: https://www.phusionpassenger.com/docs/advanced_guides/gls/generic_guide.html

[grahamb]

As I mentioned in the issue, I tried that using PassengerAppStartCommand, and can't seem to get it working under Passenger with Apache.

[CamJN]

You need to pass the port for your app to listen on in the start command. It must be passed this way because passenger chooses the port per-process. I don't see any way that you are doing that.

[grahamb]

I was able to get it working with PassengerAppStartCommand "/usr/bin/env VIRTUAL_PORT=$PORT /usr/local/bin/node --env-file /var/node/app/current/.env /var/node/app/current/index.js"

It would be great if there was the ability to pass startup arguments directly through an option when in Apache or Nginx mode.