Node.js

Node.js is a cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, especially for server-side and networking applications. npm is its package manager and application dependency update path.

This appliance includes all the standard features in TurnKey Core, and on top of that:

• Node.js configurations:

  • Node.js 20 and npm installed from Debian Trixie and maintained through APT:

    apt update
    apt install --only-upgrade nodejs npm

  • Support for installing npm packages globally more securely without root or sudo:

    su node
    npm install -g package

  • npm now supports security audit (replaces nsp). Provides subcommand fix, to automatically install compatible updates to vulnerable dependencies. E.g.:

    su node
    cd /opt/your-awesome-node-app
    npm audit
    npm audit fix

  • A systemd PM2 service at /etc/systemd/system/pm2-node.service runs Node.js applications on boot. PM2 is installed from npm and can be updated through npm:

    npm install --global pm2@latest

    pm2 is a production process manager that helps keep your node apps running, supports clustering and makes it easy to manage node apps:

    # su node
    $ pm2 start --max-memory-restart 500M /opt/yourapp/app.js
    $ pm2 stop tklweb-cp
    $ pm2 list

  • Default Nginx configuration template:

    server {
        listen 0.0.0.0:80 default_server;
    
        set $nodeapp_port 8000;
        include /etc/nginx/include/nodejs-proxy;
    }

  • npm bash tab-completion:

    $ npm in<tab>
    info     init     install

  • Node.js example applications, retained as Git checkouts so they can be refreshed from their upstream repositories:

    $ ls /opt/node-examples
    express_example  node-by-example  nodejsbook.io.examples  practicalnode
    
    $ git -C /opt/node-examples/express_example pull --ff-only

  • Default web page / control panel at /opt/tklweb-cp is itself an example Node.js app built with express and pug templating.

  • PM2: production process manager. Configured to start on boot as a systemd service.

• Postfix MTA (bound to localhost) to allow sending of email (e.g., password recovery).

• Webmin modules for configuring Postfix.