Could not get uid/gid when building Node/Docker - reactjs

Question

My Dockerfile is using alpine and globally installing react-scripts. When it tries to install it, it fails with "could not get uid/gid" error. I added the "---unsafe-perm" option to the npm install -g command. The docker container is successfully created, but the permissions in the container are messaged up for the installed files. I see the username and group set to 1000 for all of them. I tried adding the following command to the Dockerfile right before the install step but that didn't help.
RUN npm -g config set user root
Build error
Error: could not get uid/gid
[ 'nobody', 0 ]
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/uid-number/uid-number.js:37:16
at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:296:5)
at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:182:13)
at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:961:16)
at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:250:5)
TypeError: Cannot read property 'get' of undefined
at errorHandler (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/error-handler.js:205:18)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js:76:20
at cb (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/npm.js:228:22)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/npm.js:266:24
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/config/core.js:83:7
at Array.forEach (<anonymous>)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/config/core.js:82:13
at f (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/once/once.js:25:25)
at afterExtras (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/config/core.js:173:20)
at Conf.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/config/core.js:231:22)
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/error-handler.js:205
if (npm.config.get('json')) {
^
TypeError: Cannot read property 'get' of undefined
at process.errorHandler (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/error-handler.js:205:18)
at process.emit (events.js:182:13)
at process._fatalException (internal/bootstrap/node.js:472:27)
ERROR: Service 'sample-app' failed to build: The command '/bin/sh -c npm install react-scripts#1.1.1 -g' returned a non-zero code:
Dockerfile
/usr/src/app # cat Dockerfile
# build environment
FROM node:10-alpine as builder
RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
ENV PATH /usr/src/app/node_modules/.bin:$PATH
COPY package.json /usr/src/app/package.json
RUN npm install
RUN npm install react-scripts#1.1.1 -g
COPY . /usr/src/app
RUN npm run build
# production environment
FROM nginx:1.13.9-alpine
COPY --from=builder /usr/src/app/build /usr/share/nginx/html
EXPOSE 80
CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"]

Answer 1

UPD Fixed in nodejs#12.4.0?
Check if this is linked to nodejs/docker-node issue 813:
Root cause seems to be: Thread stack size
The default stack size for new threads on glibc is determined based on the resource limit governing the main thread’s stack (RLIMIT_STACK).
It generally ends up being 2-10 MB.
There three possible solutions:
Talk to Alpine teams to fix it. There were some discussions already
Fix it in the node docker alpine image as follows
Set default npm_config_unsafe_perm=true in the docker image as a workaround until it's fixed.
You already tried the third option, but consider also:
Alternatively, you should switch to the slim (Debian) variant until this get's fixe upstream by the Alpine team.

Answer 2

I faced same issue in Docker for node-alpine image when I am dockerizing my react application
I resolved with following dockerfile configuration.
FROM node:8.10.0-alpine
# Set a working directory
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY ./build/package.json .
COPY ./build/yarn.lock .
# To handle 'not get uid/gid'
RUN npm config set unsafe-perm true
# Install Node.js dependencies
RUN yarn install --production --no-progress
# Copy application files
COPY ./build .
# Install pm2
RUN npm install -g pm2 --silent
# Run the container under "node" user by default
USER node
CMD ["pm2", "start", "mypm2config.yml", "--no-daemon", "--env", "preprod"]