Common Node.js Docker best practices

This common Docker guidelines section contains best practices that are standardized among all programming languages and have no special Node.js interpretation

Prefer COPY over ADD command

TL;DR: COPY is safer as it copies local files only while ADD supports fancier fetches like downloading binaries from remote sites

Avoid updating the base OS

TL;DR: Updating the local binaries during build (e.g. apt-get update) creates inconsistent images every time it runs and also demands elevated privileges. Instead use base images that are updated frequently

Classify images using labels

TL;DR: Providing metadata for each image might help Ops professionals treat it adequately. For example, include the maintainer name, build date and other information that might prove useful when someone needs to reason about an image

Use unprivileged containers

TL;DR: Privileged container have the same permissions and capabilities as the root user over the host machine. This is rarely needed and as a rule of thumb one should use the 'node' user that is created within official Node images

Inspect and verify the final result

TL;DR: Sometimes it's easy to overlook side effects in the build process like leaked secrets or unnecessary files. Inspecting the produced image using tools like Dive can easily help to identify such issues

Perform integrity check

TL;DR: While pulling base or final images, the network might be mislead and redirected to download malicious images. Nothing in the standard Docker protocol prevents this unless signing and verifying the content. Docker Notary is one of the tools to achieve this

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