Service file for running NodeBB with systemd. Drop or symlink into the /etc/systemd/system/ folder. This version uses node versions provided by nvm.

nodebb.service

[Unit]
Description=NodeBB forum for Node.js.
Documentation=http://nodebb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
After=system.slice multi-user.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=nodebb

StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=nodebb

Environment=NODE_ENV=production
Environment=HOME=/usr/share/nginx/nodebb
Environment=PATH=/usr/share/nginx/nodebb/.nvm/versions/node/v4.8.5/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
WorkingDirectory=/usr/share/nginx/nodebb/NodeBB/

# Call with exec to be able to redirect output: http://stackoverflow.com/a/33036589/1827734
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c 'exec /usr/share/nginx/nodebb/.nvm/versions/node/v4.8.5/bin/node /usr/share/nginx/nodebb/NodeBB/loader.js --no-daemon --no-silent 2>&1 | tee -a /usr/share/nginx/nodebb/NodeBB/logs/output.log'
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
Alias=forum
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I have a couple of questions about this:

1. Why --no-daemon?
2. Why not have the ExecStart call nodebb start?
3. Should logging really be controlled by a piped execution?