Pm2: Environment variables do not work OR are cached

[yani-]

On CentOS v6.4, Node.js v0.10.21

NODE_ENV=production node run.js

Doesn't set process.env.NODE_ENV to production, it is undefined
I found a workaround by using -x switch:

NODE_ENV=production pm2 -x -i 1 start run.js

Then I have another problem...when I change the an ENV variable, the change doesn't happen, for example if I execute the following command after running the application in production mode:

pm2 stop all
NODE_ENV=staging pm2 -x -i 1 start run.js

In my application process.env.NODE_ENV is equal to production, it should be equal to staging.
I tried:

pm2 stop all
sudo service pm2 stop
sudo service pm2 start
NODE_ENV=staging pm2 -x -i 1 start run.js

The same situation, process.env.NODE_ENV is equal to production

The solution that I found to work is:

pm2 stop all
sudo service pm2 stop
sudo rm -rf /root/.pm2
sudo rm -rf /home/username/.pm2
sudo service pm2 start
NODE_ENV=staging pm2 -x -i 1 start run.js

After the above commands, my application finally sees process.env.NODE_ENV as equal to staging.

• [ ] Write test that properly checks if environment variables are properly passed
• [ ] Write test that properly checks that environment variables are not cached
• [ ] Write fixes for the above issues

[Unitech]

Yep this is normal in "cluster_mode". As pm2 wrap your code to his own context (and own variables) you get what was already there when launching it.

$ pm2 kill
$ NODE_ENV=production pm2 start app.js

[Bramzor]

Here it runs in "fork" mode and apparently environment variables are cached...
Is there any way to make sure it doesn't get cached. This is annoying to figure out.

[vmarchaud]

use --update-env when you want to update the environment

[Bramzor]

Shouldn't it be by default to refresh environment variables? You don't expect it to be outdated.

[Unitech]

Once you start your application in production mode (let's say NODE_ENV=production pm2 start app.js) I'm sure you prefer to keep this variables in memory and not get it overridden on restart