Node.js app runs locally but fails on docker (sh: 1: rimraf: not found) - node.js

Question

I am able to build the docker image but can't get the container to run. Here is the package.json:
{
"name": "linked-versions-viewer",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "...",
"main": "./dist/bundle.js",
"type": "module",
"scripts": {
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
"clean": "rimraf dist",
"build_only": "rollup -c",
"build": "cross-env NODE_ENV=production npm run clean && npm run build_only",
"serve": "parcel src/index.html --port 12345",
"start": "npm run clean && npm run serve"
},
"repository": {
"type": "git",
"url": "..."
},
"author": "...",
"license": "...",
"dependencies": {
"antd": "^4.12.3",
"base-widget": "...",
"react": "^17.0.2",
"react-dom": "^17.0.1"
},
"devDependencies": {
"#types/node": "^14.14.28",
"#types/react": "^17.0.2",
"#types/react-dom": "^17.0.1",
"cross-env": "^7.0.3",
"parcel-bundler": "^1.12.4",
"rev-hash": "^3.0.0",
"rimraf": "^3.0.2",
"rollup": "^2.39.0",
"rollup-plugin-commonjs": "^10.1.0",
"rollup-plugin-node-resolve": "^5.2.0",
"rollup-plugin-replace": "^2.2.0",
"rollup-plugin-terser": "^7.0.2",
"rollup-plugin-typescript2": "^0.29.0",
"rollup-plugin-uglify": "^6.0.4",
"typescript": "^4.1.5"
}
}
Here is the dockerfile:
FROM node:14.17.0 as base
ENV NODE_ENV=production
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm install
COPY . .
EXPOSE 8080
FROM base as production
ENV NODE_PATH=./build
CMD ["npm", "start"]
I created the image by running docker build -t testapp . and tried running the container with docker run -p 8080:8080 -d testapp but it keeps immediately exiting with code 1. This is the error log for the image:
> linked-versions-viewer#1.0.0 start /app
> npm run clean && npm run serve
> linked-versions-viewer#1.0.0 clean /app
> rimraf dist
sh: 1: rimraf: not found
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! syscall spawn
npm ERR! file sh
npm ERR! errno ENOENT
npm ERR! linked-versions-viewer#1.0.0 clean: `rimraf dist`
npm ERR! spawn ENOENT
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the linked-versions-viewer#1.0.0 clean script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /root/.npm/_logs/2021-06-09T20_40_17_204Z-debug.log
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! linked-versions-viewer#1.0.0 start: `npm run clean && npm run serve`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the linked-versions-viewer#1.0.0 start script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
I tried just removing the rimraf dependency altogether but then got a similar error for the parcel dependency, so maybe the packages aren't being installed properly? The app is also written in typescript if that's helpful.
Not sure what to try next. Thank you for any suggestions.

Answer 1

Form npm install docs,
With the --production flag (or when the NODE_ENV environment variable is set to production), npm will not install modules listed in devDependencies
Since you have ENV NODE_ENV=production in your base image, neither rimraf nor parcel-bundler is installed inside your container.
Your npm start command is running npm run clean && npm run serve. npm run clean uses rimraf module and npm run serve uses parcel-bundler module. This is the reason why you're seeing both the errors.
You can try one of the following solutions,
Remove ENV NODE_ENV=production from your Dockerfile (This is the quickest solution but should not be used in production)
You can install rimraf and parcel-bundler globally inside the container using:
RUN npm install --global rimraf && npm install --global parcel-bundler
However, I still don't think this is a good production-ready setup.
You can properly build your app using npm run build inside your container and serve it. However, I am not familiar with React enough to help you set up this on Docker.