daemonize mode causes error on startup

[ghost]

Hello,
we run frontail using following parameters:

frontail -d --disable-usage-stats -n 2000 \
  --ui-highlight-preset /tmp/frontail-preset --ui-highlight --pid-path /tmp/frontail.pid --log-path /tmp/frontail.log \
  /usr/java/jetty/logs/server.log

-d option causes following error at startup:

node:internal/fs/utils:815
  throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE(
  ^

TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]: The "data" argument must be of type string or an instance of Buffer, TypedArray, or DataView. Received type number (930)
    at Object.writeFileSync (node:fs:1509:5)
    at module.exports (/usr/node/lib/node_modules/frontail/lib/daemonize.js:64:6)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/node/lib/node_modules/frontail/index.js:47:3)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1108:14)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1137:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:973:32)
    at Function.Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:813:14)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:997:19)
    at require (node:internal/modules/cjs/helpers:92:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/node/lib/node_modules/frontail/bin/frontail:2:1) {
  code: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE'
}

log file (/tmp/frontail.log) is created, but empty,
pid file (/tmp/frontail.pid) isn't created at all,

• frontail: 4.9.2 (4.9.1 the same)
• node: v15.8.0
• npm: 7.5.1

I don't know it is connected, but very often daemonized frontail dies with no trace.
Btw. we use jetty+frontail in dockerized container based on Centos 8

[BauerPh]

same here... somone has a fix for this?

• node: v16.9.1
• npm: 7.21.1

Edit:
I've found a workaround:
start it with pm2

pm2 start frontail -- /var/log/logfile.log -t dark

[ghost]

Unfortunately project looks like a bit dead :/.

[lamuertepeluda]

The fix is trivial... just stringify this line https://github.com/mthenw/frontail/blob/master/lib/daemonize.js#L68

e.g. from

fs.writeFileSync(params.pidPath, proc.pid);

to

fs.writeFileSync(params.pidPath, String(proc.pid));

[lamuertepeluda]

While somebody takes care of this fix, I have found a workaround for daemonizing it in a Linux environment

damonize_frontail.sh

$FRONTAIL_LOGFILE=./frontail-log.log
FRONTAIL_PID_FILE=./frontail.pid
$LOGFILE=$1

# start frontail storing pid - put options here before $LOGFILE
frontail $LOGFILE &> $FRONTAIL_LOGFILE & frontail_pid=$! 

# write PID to disk
echo "$frontail_pid" > $FRONTAIL_PID_FILE

launch daemon: damonize_frontail.sh <logfile>

lately you can kill it like this

kill_frontail.sh

FRONTAIL_PID_FILE=./frontail.pid
$frontail_pid=cat $FRONTAIL_PID_FILE
kill $frontail_pid
rm $FRONTAIL_PID_FILE

Non-linux user should find a similar workaround for their OSes.