mhart / Alpine Node

Minimal Node.js Docker Images

Versions v16.4.2, v14.17.3, v12.22.3, v10.24.1, v8.17.0, v6.17.1, v4.9.1, v0.12.18 and v0.10.48 – built on Alpine Linux.

All versions use the one mhart/alpine-node repository, but each version aligns with the following tags (ie, mhart/alpine-node:<tag>). The sizes are for the unpacked images as reported by Docker – compressed sizes are about 1/3 of these:

• Full install built with npm and yarn:
  • latest, 16, 16.4, 16.4.2 – 108 MB (npm 7.19.1, yarn 1.22.10)
  • 14, 14.17, 14.17.3 – 109 MB (npm 6.14.13, yarn 1.22.10)
  • 12, 12.22, 12.22.3 – 80.4 MB (npm 6.14.13, yarn 1.22.10)
  • 10, 10.24, 10.24.1 – 73.1 MB (npm 6.14.12, yarn 1.22.10)
  • 8, 8.17, 8.17.0 – 67.8 MB (npm 6.14.11, yarn 1.22.10)
• Full install build with npm:
  • 6, 6.17, 6.17.1 – 49 MB (npm 3.10.10)
  • 4, 4.9, 4.9.1 – 35.2 MB (npm 2.15.12)
  • 0.12, 0.12.18 – 32.4 MB (npm 2.15.12)
  • 0.10, 0.10.48 – 27.8 MB (npm 2.15.12)
• Slim install with no npm or yarn:
  • slim, slim-16, slim-16.4, slim-16.4.2 – 78.1 MB
  • slim-14, slim-14.17, slim-14.17.3 – 73.9 MB
  • slim-12, slim-12.22, slim-12.22.3 – 46.9 MB
  • slim-10, slim-10.24, slim-10.24.1 – 41.3 MB
  • slim-8, slim-8.17, slim-8.17.0 – 37.2 MB
  • slim-6, slim-6.17, slim-6.17.1 – 32.5 MB

Examples

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:14 node --version
v14.17.3

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:12 node --version
v12.22.3

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:14 npm --version
6.14.13

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:14 yarn --version
1.22.10

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:slim-14 node --version
v14.17.3

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:slim-12 node --version
v12.22.3

Example Dockerfile for your own Node.js project

If you're doing your npm install/npm ci or yarn install from your Dockerfile, then you'll probably want to add node_modules to your .dockerignore file first, so that it doesn't get sent to the docker daemon.

For the smallest builds, use a multi-stage build – where you install your modules using the full install image, but then create your app using the slim image – this can reduce the size of your final image by ~35MB or so.

# This stage installs our modules
FROM mhart/alpine-node:12
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json package-lock.json ./

# If you have native dependencies, you'll need extra tools
# RUN apk add --no-cache make gcc g++ python3

RUN npm ci --prod

# Then we copy over the modules from above onto a `slim` image
FROM mhart/alpine-node:slim-12

# If possible, run your container using `docker run --init`
# Otherwise, you can use `tini`:
# RUN apk add --no-cache tini
# ENTRYPOINT ["/sbin/tini", "--"]

WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=0 /app .
COPY . .
CMD ["node", "index.js"]

If you can't do multi-stage builds, then you can just do everything on a "full install" image:

FROM mhart/alpine-node:12

# If possible, run your container using `docker run --init`
# Otherwise, you can use `tini`:
# RUN apk add --no-cache tini
# ENTRYPOINT ["/sbin/tini", "--"]

WORKDIR /app
COPY . .

# If you have native dependencies, you'll need extra tools
# RUN apk add --no-cache make gcc g++ python3

RUN npm ci --prod

CMD ["node", "index.js"]

Caveats

As Alpine Linux uses musl, you may run into some issues with environments expecting glibc-like behavior – especially if you try to use binaries compiled with glibc. You should recompile these binaries to use musl (compiling on Alpine is probably the easiest way to do this).

If you get an error similar to error loading shared library ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, it may be that you have dependencies relying on libc – you can try to fix this by adding RUN apk add --no-cache libc6-compat or RUN ln -s /lib/libc.musl-x86_64.so.1 /lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 to your Dockerfile.

Inspired by:

• https://github.com/alpinelinux/aports/blob/454db196/main/nodejs/APKBUILD
• https://github.com/alpinelinux/aports/blob/454db196/main/libuv/APKBUILD
• https://hub.docker.com/r/ficusio/nodejs-base/~/dockerfile/