Node.js app can't run on port 80 even though t

Question

I'm running an instance of Debian on Amazon EC2 with Node.js installed. If I run the code below:

http = require('http');

http.createServer(function (request, response){
  response.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type':'text/plain'});
  response.end('Hello World\n');
}).listen(80);
console.log("Running server at port 80");

I get the output below which tells me there's another process listening at port 80:

Running server at port 80

events.js:72
        throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
              ^
Error: listen EACCES
    at errnoException (net.js:901:11)
    at Server._listen2 (net.js:1020:19)
    at listen (net.js:1061:10)
    at Server.listen (net.js:1127:5)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/admin/nodetests/nodetest.js:6:4)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)

Now when I check to see if there's a process (as root in case anything is hidden) listening on port 80 using:

netstat -tupln

I get the below output, which tells me theres nothing listening at port 80:

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      1667/sshd       
tcp6       0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN      1667/sshd

I should note that the debian has port 80 open as an inbound rule if that makes a difference.

My question is: What am I doing wrong? How come I can't identify the process listening to port 80? Why is it blocked in Debian? What steps should I take to get the code running correctly?

Answer 1

Instead of running on port 80 you can redirect port 80 to your application's port (>1024) using

iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3000

This will work if your application is running on port 3000.

Answer 2

Short answer: you can allow node access to that port using:

setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' /path/to/nodejs

long answer

Answer 3

Using PORT 80 requires some special permissions. Using sudo before running statement of the app solved my problem. for example, if you are using npm to run your app, you can type sudo npm start

Answer 4

The error code EACCES means you don't have proper permissions to run applications on that port. On Linux systems, any port below 1024 requires root access.

Run the program with sudo permision. Run sudo su command before running the program.

Answer 5

I have got the same error and I tried running my application using sudo and it worked for me.

without sudo

mansi@mansi:~/NodePractice$ node myFirst.js 
events.js:141
      throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
      ^

Error: listen EACCES 0.0.0.0:80
    at Object.exports._errnoException (util.js:870:11)
    at exports._exceptionWithHostPort (util.js:893:20)
    at Server._listen2 (net.js:1224:19)
    at listen (net.js:1273:10)
    at Server.listen (net.js:1369:5)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/mansi/NodePractice/myFirst.js:6:4)
    at Module._compile (module.js:410:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:417:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:344:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:301:12)

and with sudo

mansi@mansi:~/NodePractice$ sudo node myFirst.js 
^C

Answer 6

Note that if you have apache running, you can create a reverse proxy on a vhost. If your node is running on port 8080:

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
        ServerName myLocalServer

        ProxyPass        /  http://localhost:8080/
        ProxyPassReverse /  http://localhost:8080/
</VirtualHost>

Of course, add server to /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1    myLocalServer

You will need to enable the relevant apache modules:

sudo a2enmod proxy_html
sudo a2enmod proxy_http
sudo a2enmod proxy_connect
sudo a2enmod proxy_ajp
sudo service apache2 restart

...and now you can connect to http://myLocalServer.