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Deploying NodeRED Docker image to Heroku fails, but local build is error free

We are trying to push a Docker image based on NodeRED to Heroku. Local build and test runs like a charm, but when we deploy it to Heroku, the Docker image build fails. Our docker file is quite simple:

FROM nodered/node-red
USER node-red

# Copy package.json to the WORKDIR so npm builds all
COPY package.json .
RUN mkdir -p node-red-static
COPY node-red-static/ node-red-static/
COPY defaults .
# NodeRED configuration
COPY .node-red/settings.js /usr/src/node-red/.node-red/settings.js
COPY .node-red/flows.json /data/flows.json
COPY package.json /usr/src/node-red/package.json
# Actual installation
RUN npm install --unsafe-perm --no-update-notifier --no-fund --only=production

(I also tried without setting the user)

The heroku.yml:

build:
  docker:
    web: Dockerfile

The error on git push heroku master:

npm WARN saveError EACCES: permission denied, open '/usr/src/node-red/package.json'
remote: npm WARN saveError EACCES: permission denied, open '/usr/src/node-red/package.json'
remote: npm WARN Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/usr/src/node-red/package.json'
remote: npm WARN  { [Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/usr/src/node-red/package.json']
remote: npm WARN   stack:
remote: npm WARN    'Error: EACCES: permission denied, open \'/usr/src/node-red/package.json\'',
remote: npm WARN   errno: -13,
remote: npm WARN   code: 'EACCES',
remote: npm WARN   syscall: 'open',
remote: npm WARN   path: '/usr/src/node-red/package.json' }
remote: npm WARN node-red No description
remote: npm WARN node-red No repository field.
remote: npm WARN node-red No README data
remote: npm WARN node-red No license field.
remote: 
remote: audited 627 packages in 2.146s

What do I miss?

Update

The package.json

{
  "name": "insect-core",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "engines": {
    "node": "16.1.0",
    "npm": "7.9.0"
  },
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "serve": "node-red --settings ./.node-red/settings-development.js --userDir ./.node-red",
    "start": "node-red --settings ./.node-red/settings.js --userDir /data",
    "debug": "node-red --inspector --settings ./.node-red/settings.js --userDir ./.node-red",
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  }
  "author": "techdev@protenga.com",
  "license": "Apache-2.0",
  "dependencies": {
    "node-red": "^1.3.5",
    "node-red-configurable-ping": "^1.0.1",
    "node-red-contrib-auth": "^0.1.7",
    "node-red-contrib-cloudantplus": "^0.3.0",
    "node-red-contrib-dashboard-bar-chart-data": "^0.9.7",
    "node-red-contrib-dnsquery": "^1.0.6",
    "node-red-contrib-env": "^1.0.2",
    "node-red-contrib-fast-csv": "^0.4.0",
    "node-red-contrib-google": "^0.2.0",
    "node-red-contrib-google-sheets": "^0.1.0",
    "node-red-contrib-jwt": "^0.1.0",
    "node-red-contrib-loop-processing": "^0.5.1",
    "node-red-contrib-md5": "^1.0.4",
    "node-red-contrib-moment": "^4.0.0",
    "node-red-contrib-objectcleaner": "0.0.3",
    "node-red-contrib-redis": "^1.3.9",
    "node-red-contrib-simple-message-queue": "^0.2.7",
    "node-red-contrib-simple-sendmail": "^0.1.9",
    "node-red-contrib-socketio": "^1.0.7",
    "node-red-contrib-uuid": "0.0.4",
    "node-red-node-rbe": "^0.5.0",
    "node-red-node-tail": "^0.3.1"
  }
}

Just to clarify:

What fails:

heroku stack:set container
git push heroku master

which tries to build the container on heroku

What worked:

heroku container:login
heroku container:push web --app insectos
heroku container:release web --app insectos
Solution

  • First up, copying settings.js to /usr/app/node-red/.node-red will do nothing as it will be ignored. The usrDir for the Node-RED Docker container is /data so the settings.js needs to be copied to there.

    Second, to install extra nodes add them to the package.json in /data not /usr/src/node-red. Then run npm install ... in the /data directory, this will install the nodes into /data/node_modules.

    If you want to remove any of the core nodes then you need to included their filenames in the nodesExcludes key in the settings.js as follows:

    ...
nodesExcludes: [ '90-exec.js', '10-file.js'],
...