Upstart script for node app

gistfile1.txt

description     "My awesome application daemon"

start on filesystem or runlevel [2345]
stop on shutdown

respawn
respawn limit 5 60 # Limit respawns to 5 failures in 60 seconds

env NODE_ENV=production
exec /usr/local/bin/node /path/to/application/app.js >> /path/to/application/logs/node.log 2>&1

This file is stored in /etc/init/myapp.conf. The application can be started with start myapp and stopped with stop myapp (might need sudo).