Is it possible to customise next-server unix process name

[thorfi]

Summary

When the next server is running, the unix "ps" title when I'm running a few different apps at the same time:

% pgrep -a next-server
182 next-server (v15.5.12)
190 next-server (v14.2.35)
199 next-server (v14.2.35)

Is there a way to customise the unix process title?

Additional information

No response

Example

No response

[aniruddhaadak80]

Hello thorfi. It is definitely possible to customize the unix process name but you cannot achieve it directly through the default CLI flags.

Next js uses the underlying Node js process title to set that name. To override it you will need to create a custom server script instead of using the standard next start command. In your root folder you can create a file named server.js and set process.title equal to whatever custom name you want right at the very top of the file.

After setting the title you can initialize the Next js server programmatically using the next function from the next module. Once you bind it to your http server and start listening on your port the unix ps command will display your custom title instead of next-server for that specific application instance.

This makes it very easy to distinguish between multiple projects running on the same machine.

[icyJoseph]

This is set here:

next.js/packages/next/src/server/lib/start-server.ts

Line 195 in bdf1129

process.title = `next-server (v${process.env.__NEXT_VERSION})`

I guess, you could set an instrumentation.ts file, and change the process.title from within the register function? That should override the above?

• https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/instrumentation

For when NEXT_RUNTIME is nodejs.

[aniruddhaadak80]

@thorfi I don't see an official Next.js config option for customizing the unix process name shown as
ext-server.

Common workaround is an OS/process-manager wrapper (for example Linux exec -a ...) so process listing shows your chosen label, but that is outside Next config itself.

References:

• https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/next-config-js
• https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/bash.1.html