pm2 stop/delete does not kill child worker processes (Next.js next-server orphaned)

[iAccelTech]

Description

When managing a Next.js 15 app with pm2, the next start command spawns a child next-server worker process. When
running pm2 stop or pm2 delete, PM2 only kills the parent Node.js process — the child next-server worker
survives and continues holding the port.

This causes all subsequent pm2 start/pm2 restart commands to fail with EADDRINUSE because the orphaned child is
still bound to the port.

Steps to reproduce

1. pm2 start node_modules/next/dist/bin/next --name my-app -- start -p 3002
2. Confirm the child next-server worker is running: ss -tlnp | grep 3002 shows a next-server PID different from
   the PM2-managed PID
3. pm2 stop my-app
4. ss -tlnp | grep 3002 — the next-server child is still listening
5. pm2 start my-app — fails with EADDRINUSE

Expected behavior

pm2 stop / pm2 delete should kill the entire process tree (parent + all children), not just the parent PID.

Environment

• PM2: 5.x
• Node.js: v22.x
• Next.js: 15.5.7
• OS: Ubuntu Linux

Workaround

Manually kill the orphaned process: ss -tlnp | grep to find the PID, then kill -9 .

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You might also want to check if there's an existing issue first — search for "EADDRINUSE" or "treekill" or
"child process" on their issues page.