iojs-full without upgraded npm

[mickhansen]

node-gyp will fail in a lot of cases if one doesn't use the npm bundled with iojs.
It would be great to be able to use your alpine-iojs package but without the npm update -g npm part here: https://github.com/mhart/alpine-node/blob/master/Dockerfile.full#L21

[mhart]

That's a bit strange – so you can't update npm at all? That sounds like a bug with npm and/or io.js – why would it suddenly stop working if it updates?

You sure that node-gyp works fine on Alpine Linux in the first place? I suspected that musl libc prevented many native modules from building at all.

Have you got an easy way to reproduce this?

[mickhansen]

I can use npm, i can't use packages that use node-gyp. It's a bug with node-gyp that's fixed in the npm version bunded with io.js. (nodejs/node-gyp#564, nodejs/node#433)

It works just fine if i copy your dockerfile and remove the npm update -g npm part. (and install a few extra packages).

Repro something like:

FROM mhart/alpine-iojs

RUN apk add python openssl libgcc make libstdc++ apk add g++
RUN npm install ursa

[mickhansen]

Although now i end up with a 400mb image, so not a huge gain anymore.

[mhart]

Ok cool – I'll look into this and let you know if I come up with something better!

[mickhansen]

I think that removing the npm upgrade and letting users do it themselves seems fine, but that's up to you obviously.

[mhart]

Well I think a solution that allows the latest version of npm is best – I mean, it doesn't make sense to have to be stuck on an old version and not be able to upgrade.

[mickhansen]

Of course, but the user can always run npm update -g npm on his own if he so wishes (without having to affect other people who need the bundled version for node-gyp).
iojs moves pretty fast and there's usually a pretty new npm bundled with it (1.7.1 has the private repos npm installed for one).

[mhart]

Well, I've rebuilt and pushed as mhart/alpine-iojs with tags latest, 1.7 and 1.7.1 – let me know if that fixes it for you.

[mickhansen]

It does, thank you.