Versions v12.8.1, v10.16.3, v8.16.1, v6.17.1, v4.9.1, v0.12.18 and v0.10.48 – 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>). The sizes are for the unpacked images as reported by Docker – compressed sizes are about 1/3 of these:

• Full install built with npm and yarn:
  • latest, 12, 12.8, 12.8.1 – 78.3 MB (npm 6.10.3, yarn 1.17.3)
  • 10, 10.16, 10.16.3 – 74.7 MB (npm 6.10.3, yarn 1.17.3)
  • 8, 8.16, 8.16.1 – 66.8 MB (npm 6.10.2, yarn 1.17.3)
• Full install build with npm:
  • 6, 6.17, 6.17.1 – 49 MB (npm 3.10.10)
  • 4, 4.9, 4.9.1 – 35.2 MB (npm 2.15.12)
  • 0.12, 0.12.18 – 32.4 MB (npm 2.15.12)
  • 0.10, 0.10.48 – 27.8 MB (npm 2.15.12)
• Slim install with no npm or yarn:
  • slim, slim-12, slim-12.8, slim-12.8.1 – 44.5 MB
  • slim-10, slim-10.16, slim-10.16.3 – 41.3 MB
  • slim-8, slim-8.16, slim-8.16.1 – 36.1 MB
  • slim-6, slim-6.17, slim-6.17.1 – 32.5 MB

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:12 node --version
v12.8.1

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:10 node --version
v10.16.3

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:12 npm --version
6.10.3

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:12 yarn --version
1.17.3

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:8 node --version
v8.16.1

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:6 node --version
v6.17.1

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:slim-10 node --version
v10.16.3

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:slim-8 node --version
v8.16.1

$ docker run --rm mhart/alpine-node:slim-0.10 node --version
v0.10.48

Assuming you're doing your npm install or yarn install from your Dockerfile, you'll probably want to add node_modules to your .dockerignore file first, so that it doesn't get sent to the docker daemon.

Here's a typical example using a "full install" image:

FROM mhart/alpine-node:12

WORKDIR /app
COPY . .

# If you have native dependencies, you'll need extra tools
# RUN apk add --no-cache make gcc g++ python

RUN npm install --prod

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

However, for an even smaller build: from Docker version 17.05 onwards, you can do multi-stage builds – so you can npm ci or yarn install using the full install image, but then create your app using the slim image – this can reduce the size of your final image by ~35MB or so.

FROM mhart/alpine-node:12
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json package-lock.json ./
RUN npm ci --prod

# Only copy over the node pieces we need from the above image
FROM mhart/alpine-node:slim-12
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=0 /app .
COPY . .
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).

If you get an error similar to error loading shared library ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, it may be that you have dependencies relying on libc – you can try to fix this by adding RUN apk add --no-cache libc6-compat or RUN ln -s /lib/libc.musl-x86_64.so.1 /lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 to your Dockerfile.

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/