Stop node.js program from command line

I have a simple TCP server that listens on a port.

var net = require("net");

var server = net.createServer(function(socket) {
    socket.end("Hello!\n");
});

server.listen(7777);

I start it with node server.js and then close it with Ctrl + Z on Mac. When I try to run it again with node server.js I get this error message:

node.js:201
        throw e; // process.nextTick error, or 'error' event on first tick
          ^
Error: listen EADDRINUSE
at errnoException (net.js:670:11)
at Array.0 (net.js:771:26)
at EventEmitter._tickCallback (node.js:192:41)

Am I closing the program the wrong way? How can I prevent this from happening?

Solution 1:

To end the program, you should be using Ctrl + C. If you do that, it sends SIGINT, which allows the program to end gracefully, unbinding from any ports it is listening on.

See also: https://superuser.com/a/262948/48624

Solution 2:

Ctrl+Z suspends it, which means it can still be running.

Ctrl+C will actually kill it.

you can also kill it manually like this:

ps aux | grep node

Find the process ID (second from the left):

kill -9 PROCESS_ID

This may also work

killall node

Solution 3:

Or alternatively you can do all of these in one line:

kill -9 $(ps aux | grep '\snode\s' | awk '{print $2}')

You can replace node inside '\snode\s' with any other process name.