Can I remove the build dependencies installed when building NodeJS from Source (such as g++, gcc, libstdc++6, etc )?

Question

I built NodeJS from source on an ubuntu-slim image. When you do this it requires a lot of package installs in the process, such as (for example. below is Node16 dependencies)

&& apt-get install --yes \
    libstdc++6 \
... 
...
    && apt-get install --yes \
        binutils-gold \
        g++ \
        gcc \
        gnupg \
        libgcc-7-dev \
        linux-headers-generic \
        make \
        python3 \

Once I have completed installing everything and configuring it, can I simply remove these build dependencies? The image has grown extensively and I need to try to clean as much fat as possible. Of course, I still want NodeJS to run my node apps.

The same kind of process happens for NodeJS 14, and I am guessing NodeJS 18.. Can we remove these build dependencies once the NodeJS is built?

Answer 1

After completing my building of Node14, I have found that:

1. Yes, you can remove the build dependencies after node is completely installed. I proved this specifically on Ubuntu20 OS platform with installing Node14. The one caveat on this is that you are using Node without needing to install native packages (native node packages require binary compilation against the OS when the package is npm installed- for example node-sass) - these are not common, so most uses of Node do not require this.
2. How to remove packages. I have found that uninstalling the apk-get packages that were installed is as simple as using apk-get purge. The example below (building node inside a Dockerfile using shell script) gives some specifics.

    echo "Building from source" \
    && NODE_BUILD_PACKAGES="binutils-gold g++ gcc libgcc-7-dev linux-headers-generic make python3" \
    && apt-get install --yes ${NODE_BUILD_PACKAGES} \
...
...
[code to build node]
...
    && apt-get purge --yes ${NODE_BUILD_PACKAGES} \
    && apt-get clean \
    && apt-get autoremove --yes \

I used those three commands to clear out the build machine after building Node from source. For clarity, here is what each of those commands does:

• The command apt-get purge removes the packages that I installed so that I could build Node.
• The command apt-get clean clears the local repository of retrieved package files that are left in /var/cache.
• The command apt-get autoremove removes packages that were automatically installed because some other package required them.