closes #5607

app.js

@@ -212,23 +212,33 @@ function upgrade() {
 
 function activate() {
 	var db = require('./src/database');
-	db.init(function (err) {
-		if (err) {
-			winston.error(err.stack);
-			process.exit(1);
-		}
-
+	var plugins = require('./src/plugins');
 	var plugin = nconf.get('activate');
+	async.waterfall([
+		function (next) {
+			db.init(next);
+		},
+		function (next) {
+			plugins.isInstalled(plugin, next);
+		},
+		function (isInstalled, next) {
+			if (!isInstalled) {
+				return next(new Error('plugin not installed'));
+			}
 			if (plugin.indexOf('nodebb-') !== 0) {
 				// Allow omission of `nodebb-plugin-`
 				plugin = 'nodebb-plugin-' + plugin;
 			}
 
 			winston.info('Activating plugin `%s`', plugin);
-		db.sortedSetAdd('plugins:active', 0, plugin, function (err) {
+			db.sortedSetAdd('plugins:active', 0, plugin, next);
+		},
+	], function (err) {
+		if (err) {
+			winston.error(err.message);
+		}
 		process.exit(err ? 1 : 0);
 	});
-	});
 }
 
 function listPlugins() {

nodebb

@@ -408,6 +408,10 @@ var commands = {
 				process.stdout.write(commands.activate.usage + '\n');
 				process.exit();
 			}
+			if (name.startsWith('nodebb-theme')) {
+				fork(['--reset', '-t', name]);
+				return;
+			}
 			var arr = ['--activate=' + name].concat(process.argv.slice(4));
 			fork(arr);
 		},