Versions v6.4.0, v5.12.0, v4.5.0, v0.12.15, v0.10.46, and io.js – built on Alpine Linux.

NB: All images were recently updated to Alpine 3.4 – there shouldn't be any breaking changes unless you rely on other apk packages. php has been renamed to php5, cron to crond and most ruby- pkgs have been removed in favor of gem

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:
  • latest, 6, 6.4, 6.4.0 – 48.03 MB (npm 3.10.6)
  • 5, 5.12, 5.12.0 – 37.63 MB (npm 3.10.3)
  • 4, 4.5, 4.5.0 – 36.84 MB (npm 2.15.10)
  • 0.12, 0.12.15 – 32.8 MB (npm 2.15.9)
  • 0.10, 0.10.46 – 28.25 MB (npm 2.15.9)
• Base install with node built as a static binary with no npm:
  • base, base-6, base-6.3, base-6.4.0 – 36.96 MB
  • base-5, base-5.12, base-5.12.0 – 27.64 MB
  • base-4, base-4.5, base-4.5.0 – 27.92 MB
  • base-0.12, base-0.12.15 – 24.14 MB
  • base-0.10, base-0.10.46 – 18.3 MB

Major io.js versions are tagged too.

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node node --version
v6.4.0

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node npm --version
3.10.6

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node:5 node --version
v5.12.0

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node:4 node --version
v4.5.0

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node:base node --version
v6.4.0

$ docker run mhart/alpine-node:base-0.10 node --version
v0.10.46

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 --no-cache make gcc g++ python

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

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

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).

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/