System Boot

pm3 can persist your process list and install a system service so your processes start automatically when you boot your machine.

Quick Setup

# 1. Start your processes
pm3 start

# 2. Save the current process list
pm3 save

# 3. Install the boot service
pm3 startup

That's it. Your processes will now start automatically on boot.

How It Works

pm3 save

Saves the current process list (names, config file path) to disk. This is the snapshot that pm3 resurrect will restore.

pm3 save

Run pm3 save again whenever you change your pm3.toml to update the saved state.

pm3 startup

Installs a system service that runs pm3 resurrect on boot.

pm3 startup

macOS

On macOS, pm3 startup creates a LaunchAgent (~/Library/LaunchAgents/). This runs under your user account and starts when you log in.

Linux

On Linux, pm3 startup creates a systemd user service (~/.config/systemd/user/). This runs under your user account and starts on boot (with lingering enabled).

pm3 resurrect

Restores the process list saved by pm3 save and starts all processes.

pm3 resurrect

You can also run this manually to restore your processes without rebooting.

Removing Boot Service

pm3 unstartup

This removes the system service file. Your processes will no longer start on boot.

Verifying It Works

After setting up:

1. Run pm3 save to save your current state.
2. Run pm3 startup to install the service.
3. Reboot your machine.
4. After reboot, run pm3 list to verify processes are running.

If processes aren't running after reboot:

• Check that pm3 save was run after your last config change.
• On Linux, ensure systemd lingering is enabled: loginctl enable-linger $USER.
• Try pm3 resurrect manually to see if there are errors.

Typical Workflow

# Initial setup
pm3 start
pm3 save
pm3 startup

# After changing pm3.toml
pm3 restart
pm3 save

# To disable auto-start
pm3 unstartup