Install Linux package in Node.js image for AWS Lambda

Question

I am trying to build a container image for a Node.js Lambda function. My base image is like this:

FROM public.ecr.aws/lambda/nodejs:20

COPY index.js ${LAMBDA_TASK_ROOT}

CMD [ "index.handler" ]

However, my Node.js function also uses pdf2htmlEX package. One way to install it is with apt-get. Running apt-get in the above dockerfile will return an error "command not found". Understandable, because apt-get is not available in the Node.js image from AWS.

Maybe that's not be the way to do it. Ultimately, how do I get a Node.js Lambda function to execute a Linux package (pdf2htmlEX in this case)?

---

Update 1: After testing out various options and combinations, I created an alternative base image in order to install pdf2htmlEX, node.js and npm :

ARG FUNCTION_DIR="/function"
FROM ubuntu:18.04
ARG FUNCTION_DIR
ENV NODE_VERSION=16.13.0
RUN apt-get update
COPY ./pdf2htmlEX.deb /tmp
# Install pdf2htmlEX and node.js and related packages
RUN apt-get install -y /tmp/pdf2htmlEX.deb curl cmake autoconf libtool
RUN curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.0/install.sh | bash
ENV NVM_DIR=/root/.nvm
RUN . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" && nvm install ${NODE_VERSION}
RUN . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" && nvm use v${NODE_VERSION}
RUN . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" && nvm alias default v${NODE_VERSION}
ENV PATH="/root/.nvm/versions/node/v${NODE_VERSION}/bin/:${PATH}"
RUN mkdir -p ${FUNCTION_DIR}
COPY index.js package.json ${FUNCTION_DIR}
WORKDIR ${FUNCTION_DIR}
RUN npm install aws-lambda-ric
CMD [ "index.handler" ]

The build failed when installing aws-lambda-ric, the runtime interface client required when using an alternative base image. The error log is too long to post here, so maybe it's not the right config.

---

Update 2: Another attempt using node-20:buster:

ARG FUNCTION_DIR="/function"

FROM node:20-buster as build-image

# Include global arg in this stage of the build
ARG FUNCTION_DIR

COPY ./pdf2htmlEX.deb /tmp
# Install build dependencies
RUN apt-get update && \
apt-get install -y \
/tmp/pdf2htmlEX.deb

Got another type of error:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
pdf2htmlex : Depends: libjpeg-turbo8 but it is not installable
Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Answer 1

Summary

• public images from AWS for lambda with nodejs are based on centos or fedora:
  • FROM public.ecr.aws/lambda/nodejs:20
  • FROM amazon/aws-lambda-nodejs:18
• the tool pdf2htmlEX don't support centos nor fedora
• If you build your own docker image from ubuntu without following the aws specifications, will throw errors or unexpected behaviors if you deploy it on a real aws account
• The specs that I discovered are: read only os expect /tmp and aws-lambda-ric is required
• To build in your localhost being compatible with the real aws servers needs the usage of aws-lambda-runtime-interface-emulator

Attempts

• I tried to convert the .deb to .rpm (using alien tool) and then install it on the centos image. After fix almost all the errors, one last error was fatal: Some library about jpg

Steps

• Build a base image compatible with real aws servers and local testing
• At the end, install the pdf2htmlEX tool with pre requisites

Folder and files

I tried this image locally and in a real aws account.

The folder should looks like

Dockerfile

# Get a base image
FROM public.ecr.aws/ubuntu/ubuntu:22.04

# Set some defaults
ARG LAMBDA_TASK_ROOT="/app"
ARG LAMBDA_RUNTIME_DIR="/usr/local/bin"
ARG PLATFORM="linux/amd64"

RUN groupadd --gid 1000 node; \
    useradd --uid 1000 --gid node --shell /bin/bash --create-home node

# node
ENV NVM_DIR /usr/local/nvm
ENV NODE_VERSION v20.13.0
RUN mkdir -p /usr/local/nvm && apt-get update && echo "y" | apt-get install curl
RUN curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash
RUN /bin/bash -c "source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh && nvm install $NODE_VERSION && nvm use --delete-prefix $NODE_VERSION"
ENV NODE_PATH $NVM_DIR/versions/node/$NODE_VERSION/bin
ENV PATH $NODE_PATH:$PATH

WORKDIR /app

## Install aws-lambda-ric
RUN apt-get update; \
    apt-get install -y \
        g++ \
        make \
        cmake \
        unzip \
        libcurl4-openssl-dev \
        autoconf \
        automake \
        build-essential \
        libtool \
        m4 \
        python3 \
        unzip \
        libssl-dev; \       
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*;
RUN npm install aws-lambda-ric -g

# Copy function code
COPY ./app/ ${LAMBDA_TASK_ROOT}/
RUN npm install 


# Prevent this warn
# npm WARN logfile Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, scandir '/home/sbx_user1051/.npm/_logs'
# https://stackoverflow.com/a/73394694/3957754
RUN mkdir -p /tmp/.npm/_logs
ENV npm_config_cache /tmp/.npm

# (Optional) Add Lambda Runtime Interface Emulator and use a script in the ENTRYPOINT for simpler local runs
WORKDIR ${LAMBDA_TASK_ROOT}
ADD "https://github.com/aws/aws-lambda-runtime-interface-emulator/releases/latest/download/aws-lambda-rie" "/usr/bin/aws-lambda-rie"
COPY entry.sh /
RUN chmod 755 "/usr/bin/aws-lambda-rie" "/entry.sh"

## Install pdf2htmlEX

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

RUN apt-get update; \
    apt-get -y install tzdata libjpeg-turbo8 wget gpg curl xz-utils jq libglib2.0-dev libcairo2-dev

RUN curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/pdf2htmlEX/pdf2htmlEX/releases/latest  | jq -r '.assets[] | select(.name=="pdf2htmlEX-0.18.8.rc1-master-20200630-Ubuntu-bionic-x86_64.deb").browser_download_url'  | wget -qi - -O /tmp/pdf2htmlEX.deb

RUN dpkg -i /tmp/pdf2htmlEX.deb
RUN pdf2htmlEX -v


ENTRYPOINT [ "/entry.sh" ]
CMD [ "app.handler" ]

entry.sh

#!/bin/sh
if [ -z "${AWS_LAMBDA_RUNTIME_API}" ]; then
  exec /usr/bin/aws-lambda-rie npx aws-lambda-ric $1
else
  exec npx aws-lambda-ric $1
fi

app.js

const exec = require('util').promisify(require('child_process').exec);

exports.handler = async (event, context) => {

    let out = await exec(`pdf2htmlEX -v`).catch(e => e);

    console.log("pdf2htmlEX command", JSON.stringify(out));

    return {
        statusCode: 200,
        body: {
            code: 200,
            message: "Hell!!"
        }
    }; 
}

pdf2htmlEX

As a proof that pdf2htmlEX was installed I printed the pdf2htmlEX -v

in localhost

inside the container

real aws account

dockerhub

I publish the image so is ready to use

https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/jrichardsz/aws-lambda-nodejs/general