PalmTree, the NodeOS Service Starter

REPOSITORY: https://github.com/lite20/palmtree

NPM MODULE: https://www.npmjs.com/package/palmtree

Introduction

Sometimes we need scripts, or services to launch on startup. This is a remarkably easy task in NodeOS. The startup program launcher on NodeOS is called PalmTree. PalmTree uses a simple .json file in the /etc/ folder called “palmtree.json”. In this file, which we will refer to as the palmtree, is simply a JSON encoded array of objects. Each object contains at minimum the command to execute. Additionally, you may specify a name, or arguments to go along. Let’s take a look at an example palmtree.

[ { "command": "plexdl", "name": "PlexDL", "args": ['beta-gui'] } ]

As you can see, a command is specified, a name for the program, and an argument. Only the command is necessary. On startup, with this palmtree, PalmTree would run the command “plexdl” with the argument “-beta-gui” and if there were any issues, it would report them and refer to the command as “PlexDL”.

Adding or Removing Commands

Manually

To add or remove scripts/services from startup, simply remove the object from your palmtree. A graphical GUI is underworks to allow you to do this easily.

Programatically

To add or remove scripts/services from startup programatically, the palmtree.json file is a perfectly formatted JSON file. In NodeJS, you can use require to load it, or use the fs module and JSON parse it. Then make your adjustments, be it adding or removing a program, then re-serialize the JSON object and write it back to the file.