Pm2: interpreter_args / node_args not getting passed from CLI when using process .config.js file

[gombosg]

What's going wrong?

When I use a process (.config.js) file, --node-args given in the command line are not getting passed to the started instances - however, PM2 doesn't throw an error or a warning about this.

It should either pass the CLI options to started instances, overwriting the config file, or issue a warning that the CLI option is not working.

How could we reproduce this issue?

Create a .js file that just logs process.execArgv:

console.log(process.execArgv);

Then create .config.js ecosystem files like this:

// Good
module.exports = {
  apps : [{
    name        : "test_good",
    script      : "./test.js",
    node_args   : ["--max-old-space-size=8192"],
    autorestart : false,
  },
  {
    name        : "test_good2",
    script      : "./test.js",
    node_args   : ["--max-old-space-size=8192"],
    autorestart : false
  },
]}
// Bad
module.exports = {
  apps : [{
    name        : "test_bad",
    script      : "./test.js",
    // node_args   : ["--max-old-space-size=8192"],
    autorestart : false,
  },
  {
    name        : "test_bad2",
    script      : "./test.js",
    // node_args   : ["--max-old-space-size=8192"],
    autorestart : false
  },
]}

then start PM2:

# setting in the config file
pm2 start test_good.config.js --only test_good
# this should overwrite the setting in the config file
pm2 start test_overwrite.config.js --node-args="--max-old-space-size=4096"
# no setting in config file, CLI parameter not getting passed
pm2 start test_bad.config.js --only test_bad --node-args="--max-old-space-size=8192"

See the attachment: pm2test.zip.

Supporting information

Please run the following command (available on PM2 >= 2.6)

$ pm2 report
===============================================================================
--- PM2 REPORT (Tue Apr 10 2018 10:53:47 GMT+0200 (CEST)) ---------------------
===============================================================================
--- Daemon -------------------------------------------------
pm2d version         : 2.10.2
node version         : 8.11.1
node path            : /home/gombosg/.npm-global/bin/pm2
argv                 : /usr/bin/node,/home/gombosg/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/pm2/lib/Daemon.js
argv0                : node
user                 : gombosg
uid                  : 1000
gid                  : 1000
uptime               : 22min
===============================================================================
--- CLI ----------------------------------------------------
local pm2            : 2.10.2
node version         : 8.11.1
node path            : undefined
argv                 : /usr/bin/node,/home/gombosg/.npm-global/bin/pm2,report
argv0                : node
user                 : gombosg
uid                  : 1000
gid                  : 1000
===============================================================================
--- System info --------------------------------------------
arch                 : x64
platform             : linux
type                 : Linux
cpus                 : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5300U CPU @ 2.30GHz
cpus nb              : 4
freemem              : 385179648
totalmem             : 8231157760
home                 : /home/gombosg
===============================================================================
--- PM2 list -----------------------------------------------
┌────────────────┬────┬──────┬─────┬─────────┬─────────┬────────┬─────┬────────┬─────────┬──────────┐
│ App name       │ id │ mode │ pid │ status  │ restart │ uptime │ cpu │ mem    │ user    │ watching │
├────────────────┼────┼──────┼─────┼─────────┼─────────┼────────┼─────┼────────┼─────────┼──────────┤
│ test_bad       │ 2  │ fork │ 0   │ stopped │ 0       │ 0      │ 0%  │ 0 B    │ gombosg │ disabled │
│ test_good      │ 0  │ fork │ 0   │ stopped │ 0       │ 0      │ 0%  │ 0 B    │ gombosg │ disabled │
│ test_overwrite │ 1  │ fork │ 0   │ stopped │ 0       │ 0      │ 0%  │ 0 B    │ gombosg │ disabled │
└────────────────┴────┴──────┴─────┴─────────┴─────────┴────────┴─────┴────────┴─────────┴──────────┘
===============================================================================
--- Daemon logs --------------------------------------------
/home/gombosg/.pm2/pm2.log last 20 lines:
PM2        | [2018-04-10 10:53:00] PM2 log: Starting execution sequence in -fork mode- for app name:test_good id:0
PM2        | [2018-04-10 10:53:00] PM2 log: App name:test_good id:0 online
PM2        | [2018-04-10 10:53:00] PM2 log: App [test_good] with id [0] and pid [3746], exited with code [0] via signal [SIGINT]
PM2        | [2018-04-10 10:53:00] PM2 log: Starting execution sequence in -fork mode- for app name:test_overwrite id:1
PM2        | [2018-04-10 10:53:00] PM2 log: App name:test_overwrite id:1 online
PM2        | [2018-04-10 10:53:00] PM2 log: App [test_overwrite] with id [1] and pid [3762], exited with code [0] via signal [SIGINT]
PM2        | [2018-04-10 10:53:00] PM2 log: Starting execution sequence in -fork mode- for app name:test_bad id:2
PM2        | [2018-04-10 10:53:00] PM2 log: App name:test_bad id:2 online
PM2        | [2018-04-10 10:53:00] PM2 log: App [test_bad] with id [2] and pid [3778], exited with code [0] via signal [SIGINT]

[Unitech]

Just tried with this ecosystem.config.js:

````
module.exports = {
apps : [{
name : 'clustered_http',
script : './http.js',
instances : 'max',
output: '/dev/null',
node_args: '--inspect',
error: '/dev/null',
exec_mode : 'cluster',
env : {
PORT : 8002
}
}]
}

And with `pm2 logs` I notice that the inspector is properly enabled:

PM2 | Debugger listening on ws://127.0.0.1:9237/1a767699-938f-4db4-85c9-06fdd5222e2c
PM2 | For help see https://nodejs.org/en/docs/inspector
```

[gombosg]

Thanks for looking into it! The bug report is not about node_args not working in the config file, but rather when you try to pass it from the CLI, it's ignored. My repro test above is still not working properly.