[indexzero]

That's a strange usage for "proprietary" since it's all free and open source (MIT). Either way, the nodejs child_process module is really just a light weight wrapper to execvp():

http://linux.die.net/man/3/execvp

I haven't dug through the source for tools like monit, daemontools, but I'm sure near the metal they're using POSIX or similar system APIs.

EDIT: There's really no reason Forever has to be node specific, I actually say that in the article:

"Honestly, it's a one line fix here (https://github.com/indexzero/forever/blob/master/lib/forever...), but I'm not sure if users want to put 'node' in-front of every command."

I'll file your comment as a +1 for that feature ;)