I am working on a small Node.js (Node.js v4.3) project that is using node-serialport. I wrapped it in a Docker image. First, I successfully used Debian as a base image, but it had a total size of about 600 MB.
Then I switched to Alpine Linux and achieved 100 MB of image size. However, the Node.js project stopped working with Alpine Linux as base image. Here are some logs:
Install node-serialport log:
> serialport@2.0.6 install /app/node_modules/serialport
> node-pre-gyp install --fallback-to-build
[serialport] Success: "/app/node_modules/serialport/build/Release/node-v46-linux-x64/serialport.node" is installed via remote
serialport@2.0.6 node_modules/serialport
├── bindings@1.2.1
├── async@0.9.0
├── sf@0.1.7
├── debug@2.2.0 (ms@0.7.1)
├── nan@2.0.9
└── optimist@0.6.1 (wordwrap@0.0.3, minimist@0.0.10)
When I try to open a serial port, I get an error:
npm ERR! Linux 3.19.0-30-generic
npm ERR! argv "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "start"
npm ERR! node v4.3.0
npm ERR! npm v2.14.12
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! app@1.2.0 start: `node ./bin/www`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the app@1.2.0 start script 'node ./bin/www'.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the app package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR! node ./bin/www
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR! npm owner ls app
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR! /app/app/npm-debug.log
module.js:435
return process.dlopen(module, path._makeLong(filename));
^
Error: Error relocating /app/app/node_modules/serialport/build/Release/node-v46-linux-x64/serialport.node: __strcpy_chk: symbol not found
at Error (native)
at Object.Module._extensions..node (module.js:435:18)
at Module.load (module.js:344:32)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:301:12)
at Module.require (module.js:354:17)
at require (internal/module.js:12:17)
at Object.<anonymous> (/app/app/node_modules/serialport/serialport.js:14:25)
at Module._compile (module.js:410:26)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:417:10)
at Module.load (module.js:344:32)
As I said, with Debian as the base image, it worked. I think it could be related to the fact that Alpine Linux is missing something that node-serialport depends on. I created an issue, but I am not sure if this is a problem with node-serialport or with Alpine Linux. I read about node-pre-gyp being buggy on Alpine Linux and BusyBox.
Add instructions for Alpine Linux #710
Alpine is a (very) small Linux distribution, but it uses the musl standard library instead of glibc (that most other Linux distributions use), so it requires compilation.
# If you don't have node/npm already, add that first
sudo apk add --no-cache nodejs
# Add the necessary build and runtime dependencies
sudo apk add --no-cache make gcc g++ python linux-headers udev
# Then we can install serialport, forcing it to compile
npm install serialport --build-from-source=serialport
I tested it. It solves the problem.