monit removes quotes from start program commands

Question

I am debugging monit start/stop program statements. In my `/etc/monit.conf` file, my `start program` statement looks like this: ``` check process node with pidfile /home/ec2-user/blah/node.pid start program = "/bin/su -c 'export APP_ENV=development; /home/ec2-user/local/bin/node /home/ec2-user/example.com/current/api.js start &> /tmp/monit.out ' " stop program = "/bin/su -c '/home/ec2-user/local/bin/node /home/ec2-user/example.com/current/api.js stop'"" ``` which I've tested in a shell with ``` $ sudo su # env -i PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin /bin/sh # /bin/su -c '/usr/bin/env APP_ENV=development; /home/ec2-user/local/bin/node /home/ec2-user/example.com/current/api.js start &> /tmp/monit.out ' ``` running this returns in the `/tmp/monit.out` file the correct output: ``` Starting nodejs daemon... nodejs daemon started. PID: 16408 ``` But when I run `sudo monit -v monitor node`, it displays a different command, identical except with the inner single quotes removed: ``` The service…

Accepted Answer

It's a quite late answer, nevertheless I find it important since it causes some misunderstanding (so I was misleaded)

You don't need to escape a single quote character. Try it:

```
check process fake_proc
  with pidfile /tmp/test_pid
  start = "/bin/bash -c 'echo $$ > /tmp/test_pid'"
  stop = "echo stop > /tmp/test_pid"
```

It will not shown as a started process, however `test_pid` file is created. Add `; sleep xx` to catch a process and examine its properties.

The problem might be caused by a some env-specific issue.

monit removes quotes from start program commands

Solution

Problem