As stated in README ofever and README ofever -monitor , the forever module is a command line interface, and the forever-monitor package is the main monitoring function without the CLI, so you can use it programmatically.
Which package should I use under what circumstances?
- You should use the
forever module if you want to use the CLI (for example, start something manually). - You should use
forever-monitor when writing a program that should control the application you are running. For example, an application in which you launch other applications through the interface, or if you want to create something that needs to be restarted if an error occurs in your application.
Do they offer the same functionality?
I have not looked at the code, but the package.json dependencies in the forever module include forever-monitor , which sounds realistic because the forever module is an application that manages other applications (and therefore uses forever-monitor ). Probably (at least most of them) yes, but everything in forever-monitor may not be implemented in forever .