/alpine-node

Minimal Node/io.js Docker Images built on Alpine Linux

MIT LicenseMIT

Minimal Node.js Docker Images (18MB, or 6.6MB compressed)

Versions v5.0.0, v4.2.2, v0.12.7, v0.10.40, and io.js – 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>):

  • Full install built with npm (2.14.9 unless specified):
    • latest, 5, 5.0, 5.0.0 – 35.21 MB (npm 3.3.10)
    • 4, 4.2, 4.2.2 – 34.57 MB
    • 0.12, 0.12.7 – 31.81 MB
    • 0.10, 0.10.40 – 27.17 MB
  • Base install with node built as a static binary with no npm:
    • base, base-5, base-5.0, base-5.0.0 – 25.25 MB
    • base-4, base-4.2, base-4.2.2 – 25.04 MB
    • base-0.12, base-0.12.7 – 22.3 MB
    • base-0.10, base-0.10.40 – 18.5 MB

Major io.js versions are tagged too.

Example

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node node --version
v5.0.0

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node:4 node --version
v4.2.2

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node npm --version
3.3.10

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node:base node --version
v5.0.0

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node:3 iojs --version
v3.3.1

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node:base-0.10 node --version
v0.10.40

Example Dockerfile for your own Node.js project

If you don't have any native dependencies, ie only depend on pure-JS npm modules, then my suggestion is to run npm install locally before running docker build (and make sure node_modules isn't in your .dockerignore) – then you don't need an npm install step in your Dockerfile and you don't need npm installed in your Docker image – so you can use one of the smaller base* images.

FROM mhart/alpine-node:base
# FROM mhart/alpine-node:base-0.10
# FROM mhart/alpine-node

WORKDIR /src
ADD . .

# If you have native dependencies, you'll need extra tools
# RUN apk add --update make gcc g++ python

# If you need npm, don't use a base tag
# RUN npm install

# If you had native dependencies you can now remove build tools
# RUN apk del make gcc g++ python && \
#   rm -rf /tmp/* /var/cache/apk/* /root/.npm /root/.node-gyp

EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "index.js"]

Caveats

As Alpine Linux uses musl, you may run into some issues with environments expecting glibc-like behaviour (for example, Kubernetes). Some of these issues are documented here:

Inspired by: