pm2alt is a lightweight command-line tool that acts as a user-friendly wrapper around systemd. It provides a pm2-like interface for managing your applications as robust system services, without needing Node.js or pm2 itself.

It's ideal for developers who are comfortable with pm2's workflow but want to use the native, powerful process manager built into modern Linux distributions.

• Familiar Syntax: Uses simple commands like start, stop, restart, and logs.
• No Dependencies: It's a single Bash script. It doesn't require npm, node, or any other runtime.
• Systemd Power: Leverages systemd for process supervision, automatic restarts on failure, and centralized logging via journald.
• Auto-Configuration: Automatically finds the full path to your script's executable (e.g., deno, node, python) to avoid common systemd PATH issues.

• A Linux distribution that uses systemd (e.g., Debian 10+, Ubuntu 16.04+, CentOS 7+, Arch Linux).
• sudo or root access to install the script and manage services.
• curl to use the installer.

You can install pm2alt with a single command. It will download the script to /usr/local/bin/pm2alt and make it executable.

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/controlx-io/bash-utils/refs/heads/main/pm2alt_install.sh | sudo -E bash -

All commands must be run with sudo because they interact with the systemd daemon.

The start command creates a new systemd service, enables it to start on boot, and starts it immediately.

sudo pm2alt start -n <app-name> -s "<command>" [options]

Arguments:

• -n, --name: (Required) A unique name for your service (e.g., my-api).
• -s, --script: (Required) The full command to run your app, enclosed in quotes.
• -u, --user: The Linux user to run the process as (default: nodeapp).
• -w, --cwd: The working directory for your application (default: the current directory).

Example (Deno):

sudo pm2alt start -n my-deno-app -s "deno run --allow-net server.ts" -u username -w /home/username/my-project
# as above, if the deno binary is not in the PATH of the current user, you can specify the full path to the deno executable

Example (Node.js):

sudo pm2alt start -n my-node-app -s "node index.js" -u www-data -w /var/www/my-app

To see the status of a specific service, including whether it's active, its PID, and recent logs:

pm2alt status my-deno-app

To view the live logs for an application (similar to pm2 logs):

pm2alt logs my-deno-app

(Press Ctrl+C to exit the log stream).

To restart a running service:

sudo pm2alt restart my-deno-app

The stop command will stop the service, disable it from starting on boot, and give you the option to permanently delete its .service configuration file.

sudo pm2alt stop my-deno-app

You will be prompted to confirm the deletion of the service file.

The pm2alt script is a wrapper that constructs and manages systemd unit files (.service files) in /etc/systemd/system/.

• pm2alt start generates a .service file with the parameters you provide and uses systemctl to enable and start it.
• All other commands (stop, restart, etc.) are convenient shortcuts for their systemctl equivalents (systemctl stop, systemctl restart, etc.).
• Logs are automatically handled by journald, which is the standard systemd logging daemon.

This approach gives you the simplicity of pm2 while using the robust, native process management tools of your operating system.

To update pm2alt, delete the existing one and run the installation command again.

sudo pm2alt stop my-deno-app
# Do you want to delete the service file? [y/N]:, make sure to type y

# install it again
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/controlx-io/bash-utils/refs/heads/main/pm2alt_install.sh | sudo -E bash -
sudo pm2alt start -n my-deno-app -s "deno run --allow-net server.ts" -u username -w /home/username/my-project