[Bug] PORT env var has no fallback, can silently break server startup

[sricharan12-hub]

Description

The server's listening port has no default value, and the fallback that used to exist is commented out, so a missing PORT env var results in app.listen(undefined, ...).

Details

backend/src/server.js:

const app = express();
// const PORT = process.env.PORT || 5001;
...
app.listen(process.env.PORT, () => {
  console.log("Server listening at port number: " + process.env.PORT);
});

The PORT fallback is commented out, and the raw process.env.PORT is passed straight to app.listen. If PORT isn't set (e.g. a fresh clone using .env.example, which does set PORT=5001, but any environment where it's omitted), Express falls back to picking a random available port with no clear log message, making the failure confusing to diagnose.

Expected

The server should default to a sensible port (e.g. 5001) when PORT is not set, and log the actual port it bound to.

Suggested fix

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 5001;
...
app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log("Server listening at port number: " + PORT);
});

I would like to work on this issue. Could you please assign this issue to me?

[arcgod-design]

Hi @niharika-mente! I'd love to fix this under SSoC26.

My approach:

• Change const PORT = process.env.PORT to const PORT = process.env.PORT || 5001 to add a sensible fallback
• Add a startup log message indicating whether the port came from the environment or the fallback
• Update .env.example to document the PORT variable

Could you please assign this to me (@arcgod-design)? Thank you!