“Error: The libsass binding was not found…” in 4.2.4-wheezy.

[philiiiiiipp]

Hey,

I posted a question on stackoverflow regarding a problem I have with node-sass using the 4.2.4-wheezy image. I am wondering right now if this has something to do with the image itself as I am perfectly capable of building it on my machine running node 4.2.4 and on the 5.4.1-wheezy image on docker.

[chorrell]

Hi,

I can't seem to reproduce the issue your are having.

Grabbed the latest wheezy 4.2 image:

docker run --rm -it node:4.2.4-wheezy bash

And from within the container I did this:

root@793c84e5e60e:/# npm install -g node-sass

And it installed:

root@793c84e5e60e:/# npm list -g --depth 0
npm info it worked if it ends with ok
npm info using [email protected]
npm info using [email protected]
/usr/local/lib
├── [email protected]
└── [email protected]

npm info ok 
root@793c84e5e60e:/# 

That's using the latest version of node-sass

[philiiiiiipp]

Yes, that works for me too. I investigated a bit further and the problem seems to lay in the node-sass-middleware module used by express. Try:

npm install express-generator -g &&
express -c sass --hbs --git myapp &&
cd myapp &&
npm install &&
npm start

The problem seems to be these lines here:

npm WARN cannot run in wd [email protected] node scripts/install.js (wd=/srv/www/myapp/node_modules/node-sass-middleware/node_modules/node-sass)
npm info postinstall [email protected]
npm WARN cannot run in wd [email protected] node scripts/build.js (wd=/srv/www/myapp/node_modules/node-sass-middleware/node_modules/node-sass)

substituting

npm install 

with

npm --unsafe-perm install

fixes the issue which I don't have to do if I install it on my mac using 4.2.4, as well as when I use the 5.4.1 image.

[pesho]

Indeed, npm 2.x will not execute scripts when run as root, unless called with --unsafe-perm. This can cause some packages to not install properly, without printing a clear error. Maybe this behaviour has changed with npm 3.x, which the Node 5.x image is using.

[philiiiiiipp]

Okay, that makes sense. Changing the directory owner on my mac to root and running sudo npm install gives the same warning.

npm WARN cannot run in wd [email protected] node scripts/install.js (wd=/Users/philipp/node/docker_test/myapp/node_modules/node-sass-middleware/node_modules/node-sass)
npm WARN cannot run in wd [email protected] node scripts/build.js (wd=/Users/philipp/node/docker_test/myapp/node_modules/node-sass-middleware/node_modules/node-sass)

Leading to the same error

Error: The `libsass` binding was not found in ...

I guess the proper way to go would be to create a user which owns the directory the app runs within, basically the way Starefossen suggested in his best practices guide ?

[pesho]

I guess the proper way to go would be to create a user which owns the directory the app runs within, basically the way Starefossen suggested in his best practices guide ?

Yes.

Alternatively, you could just run npm with --unsafe-perm as root, but given that there are known ways to escape the Docker sandbox, malicious packages could cause greater damage when run as root.

[philiiiiiipp]

Cool, thanks for your help!

[Starefossen]

Running with another --user would also work.

[iDVB]

@Starefossen I know this is an old issue, but we're trying to find a resolution other than running with --unsafe-perm. How do you run under a different user?

[nschonni]

https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/blob/master/docs/BestPractices.md#non-root-user