Issue to node-sass and Docker

Question

I'm attempting to dockerise my node application. My current application is a nodejs express server with postgresql. ExpressJS uses node-sass-middleware to handle the sass assets. When I run node and postgresql locally on my OSX machine everything works fine. When I try to run the app with docker-compose I get a "Missing Binding error"

Here is my Dockerfile:

FROM node:7.2.1
RUN apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y build-essential
RUN apt-get install -y libpq-dev postgresql-client
ENV APP_HOME /my_app
RUN mkdir $APP_HOME
WORKDIR $APP_HOME
ADD package.json .
RUN npm install
RUN npm rebuild node-sass
ADD . .
CMD [ "npm", "start" ]
EXPOSE 3000

Here is my docker-compose.yml file:

version: '2'
services:
    db:
      image: postgres:9.6.1
      ports:
        - '5432:5432'
    web:
      build: . # use the Dockerfile next to this file
      volumes:
        - .:/my_app
      ports:
        - "3000:3000"
      depends_on:
        - db

When I run docker-compose up I still get the following error:

web_1  | [nodemon] 1.11.0
web_1  | [nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
web_1  | [nodemon] watching: *.*
web_1  | [nodemon] starting `node ./bin/www`
web_1  | /my_app/node_modules/node-sass/lib/binding.js:15
web_1  |       throw new Error(errors.missingBinary());
web_1  |       ^
web_1  |
web_1  | Error: Missing binding /my_app/node_modules/node-sass/vendor/linux-x64-51/binding.node
web_1  | Node Sass could not find a binding for your current environment: Linux 64-bit with Node.js 7.x
web_1  |
web_1  | Found bindings for the following environments:
web_1  |   - OS X 64-bit with Node.js 7.x
web_1  |
web_1  | This usually happens because your environment has changed since running `npm install`.
web_1  | Run `npm rebuild node-sass` to build the binding for your current environment.
web_1  |     at module.exports (/my_app/node_modules/node-sass/lib/binding.js:15:13)
web_1  |     at Object.<anonymous> (/my_app/node_modules/node-sass/lib/index.js:14:35)
web_1  |     at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)
web_1  |     at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
web_1  |     at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
web_1  |     at tryModuleLoad (module.js:447:12)
web_1  |     at Function.Module._load (module.js:439:3)
web_1  |     at Module.require (module.js:498:17)
web_1  |     at require (internal/module.js:20:19)
web_1  |     at Object.<anonymous> (/my_app/node_modules/node-sass-middleware/middleware.js:3:12)
web_1  |     at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)
web_1  |     at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
web_1  |     at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
web_1  |     at tryModuleLoad (module.js:447:12)
web_1  |     at Function.Module._load (module.js:439:3)
web_1  |     at Module.require (module.js:498:17)
web_1  | [nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting...

I though by adding RUN npm rebuild node-sass to the Dockerfile, it would build the correct binding for the OS in the docker container... But it does not seem to work.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

The support for Node.js 7 (for Linux and OSX) seems to have been added in node-sass v3.7.0. Make sure you use a version equal to or newer than this.

Either you can update your Dockerfile:

FROM node:7.2.1
RUN apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y build-essential
RUN apt-get install -y libpq-dev postgresql-client
ENV APP_HOME /my_app
RUN mkdir $APP_HOME
WORKDIR $APP_HOME
ADD package.json .

# Add the two entries below
RUN mkdir -p node_modules/node-sass/vendor/linux-x64-51
RUN curl -L https://github.com/sass/node-sass/releases/download/v4.5.0/linux-x64-51_binding.node -o node_modules/node-sass/vendor/linux-x64-51/binding.node

RUN npm install
RUN npm rebuild node-sass
ADD . .
CMD [ "npm", "start" ]
EXPOSE 3000

Or you can download the binding locally and then build from the Dockerfile without any modification:

cd /path/to/node_app/node_modules
mkdir -p node-sass/vendor/linux-x64-51
curl -L https://github.com/sass/node-sass/releases/download/v4.5.0/linux-x64-51_binding.node -o node-sass/vendor/linux-x64-51/binding.node

Keep an eye out for different versions for the pre-compiled native bindings at: https://github.com/sass/node-sass/releases