Cluster mode does not change working directory

What's going wrong?

I need to start a node.js server and i have to specify a --import argument to node.

This works well in fork mode, but it fails in cluster mode. As far as i know the "cwd" is not applied early enough and make --import does not search in the good folders.

How could we reproduce this issue?

• Create an ecosystem.js file containing :

module.exports = {
  apps: [{                   
    name: 'appTest',
    script: 'index.js',
    cwd: '/path/to/appTest/',
    node_args: '--import=specifier-resolution-node/register',

    instances: 'max', // Works when this line is disabled
  }],
};

• Be sure appTest has a module compatible with --import like specifier-resolution-node

• Try to start ecosystem.js from somewhere else than /path/to/appTest/

• You can see that the process enters in "errored" mode, and if you watch in .pm2/pm2.log you will see this error:

Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find package 'specifier-resolution-node' imported from /tmp/scripts/pm2/
    at packageResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:844:9)
    at moduleResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:901:20)
    at defaultResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:1121:11)
    at ModuleLoader.defaultResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:396:12)
    at ModuleLoader.resolve (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:365:25)
    at ModuleLoader.getModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:240:38)
    at ModuleLoader.import (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:328:34)
    at node:internal/process/esm_loader:26:84
    at node:internal/per_context/primordials:544:39
    at new Promise (<anonymous>) {
  code: 'ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND'
}

• I'm nearly sure node.js is trying to import the package but can't locate the node_modules since it has the wrong working directory

Supporting information

--- PM2 report ----------------------------------------------------------------            
Date                 : Fri Dec 01 2023 21:37:20 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)                                                                                                                               
===============================================================================
--- Daemon -------------------------------------------------             
pm2d version         : 5.3.0                                                                              
node version         : 20.10.0                                                                            
node path            : /usr/bin/pm2                                                                       
argv                 : /usr/bin/node,/usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/lib/Daemon.js
argv0                : node                                                                               
user                 : root                                                                               
uid                  : 0
gid                  : 0
uptime               : 237min
===============================================================================
--- CLI ----------------------------------------------------                             
local pm2            : 5.3.0
node version         : 20.10.0
node path            : /usr/bin/pm2                                                                                                                                                                                 
argv                 : /usr/bin/node,/usr/bin/pm2,report                     
argv0                : node
user                 : root
uid                  : 0
gid                  : 0
===============================================================================
--- System info --------------------------------------------
arch                 : x64
platform             : linux
type                 : Linux
cpus                 : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1270 v6 @ 3.80GHz
cpus nb              : 8
freemem              : 31666073600
totalmem             : 33402691584
home                 : /root

Reproduce the issue with the provided ecosystem.js configuration, comparing fork mode with cluster mode and checking .pm2/pm2.log. Start by tracing the cluster startup path around cwd handling and Node's --import initialization. Done means the imported package resolves from /path/to/appTest/ when the process is started from another directory.