Open multiple node.js servers with batch file

Question

I'm using Windows. Currently every time I restart my server I have to run a bunch of commands to get my servers up and running and I'd like to consolidate them into a single batch script if possible.

Here's the process I currently have to run through:

open command prompt
cd /mongodb/bin
mongod

open another command prompt
cd /forum
node proxy.js

open another command prompt
cd /forum
node app.js

open ANOTHER command prompt
cd /game
node app.js

I feel like there is definitely a better way to do this but I can't seem to find an appropriate solution.

Solution

If you place a batch file in the directory where all these folders are (I guess its your nodejs directory), you can create a start.bat file containing the commands:

start mongodb/bin/mongod
start node forum/proxy.js
start node forum/app.js
start node game/app.js

This will execute every command simultaneously, in a separate window. Save this as a file with a .bat extension and you are done

Old answer:

mongodb/bin/mongod
node forum/proxy.js
node forum/app.js
node game/app.js

Or if you want all the processes to run in a separate window:

start cmd /k mongodb/bin/mongod
start cmd /k node forum/proxy.js
start cmd /k node forum/app.js
start cmd /k node game/app.js

Comments

[DDM]

I applied the first-set. The problem - Second NodeJS execution (e.g. here for forum/app.js) did not begin until I terminated (ctrl+c) the first process in the Command window. Please suggest an approach where I can do the same thing in the same window

[MarijnS95]

@DDM That is what the second piece of code does, although it doesn't look clean. I changed the answer to an asynchronous way, which has the same result as the second part.

[zero_cool]

did not work for me - how are you going to run proxies and servers and mongo from one process? you need to have a separate process for each command...

[MarijnS95]

@zero_cool What exactly are you trying to achieve? It turns out you can pass /wait to the start command, which'll wait for the process to exit before continuing the script.

[zero_cool]

I tried wait - but it won't work because you can't enter a command in a shell that's running a server for instance the command won't execute in the proper context - a simple example would be launching mongod and a node server with one command - you couldn't use wait for that - if you launched mongod - entering node ./server.js would be meaningless in the same shell

[MarijnS95]

@zero_cool Which is why I asked what you are trying to achieve; running one after the other makes zero sense when the node instance needs to connect to mongod. If you want to have two shells show up to be able to interact with the applications separately, try the cmd /k (or with /c) example in the answer.