# Restarting a Node process without file changes

> Learn how to make nodemon restart a Node process after a crash, not just on file changes, with a trick that runs touch on your app file when it exits.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2023-05-05 | Topics: [Node.js](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/node/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/restarting-a-node-process-without-file-changes/

I had the need to run a Node project and if that failed for some reason, run it again.

I had the idea of using nodemon, which is the way to restart a node process when a file changes.

I was thinking it did the same if the process crashed but it’s not how it works.

So I found this solution.

If the process crashes, I use the command line to run the `touch` command on the main app file, so nodemon detects a change in the file and restarts the process:

```javascript
nodemon -x 'node app.js || touch app.js'
```

Simple, works.

Of course in a real environment you’d use a robust solution like pm2 (see my tutorial [**how to use pm2 to serve a Node.js app**](https://flaviocopes.com/pm2/)) or a systemd service (I built a free [systemd service generator](https://flaviocopes.com/tools/systemd-generator/) for Node apps) but this is something I need to run for a couple hours on my local machine and it works.

> Update: an alernative is using Forever <https://www.npmjs.com/package/forever>