Docker blocked on NPM install - Socket Timeout

Question

I have a simple Dockerfile which is running node, this is the configuration:

FROM node:latest

WORKDIR /usr/src/auth-starter-server

COPY ./ ./

RUN npm install

CMD ["sh"]

Which is being used on a docker-compose.yml as such:

version: "3.8"

services:
  # Node Server
  auth-starter-server:
    container_name: server
    restart: unless-stopped
    build: ./
    command: npm run start:live
    working_dir: /usr/src/auth-starter-server
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    volumes:
      - ./:/usr/src/auth-starter-server

From a day to the other happened I couldn't build the image any longer. It starts without problems,

Creating network "react-auth-starter_default" with the default driver
Building auth-starter-server
Step 1/5 : FROM node:latest
 ---> 6f7f341ab8b8
Step 2/5 : WORKDIR /usr/src/auth-starter-server
 ---> Using cache
 ---> b25f7c08d3eb
Step 3/5 : COPY ./ ./
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 2a06e76bab32
Step 4/5 : RUN npm install
 ---> Running in 0034d6afa38e

but when building with docker-compose up --build (or simply docker build -t auth-starter-server .) it just times out on 'npm install' and it returns the following error:

npm notice 
npm notice New minor version of npm available! 7.0.15 -> 7.3.0
npm notice Changelog: <https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v7.3.0>
npm notice Run `npm install -g [email protected]` to update!
npm notice 
npm ERR! code ERR_SOCKET_TIMEOUT
npm ERR! errno ERR_SOCKET_TIMEOUT
npm ERR! request to https://registry.companyregistry.com/yargs-parser/-/yargs-parser-13.1.2.tgz failed, reason: Socket timeout

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /root/.npm/_logs/2020-12-21T15_37_42_509Z-debug.log
ERROR: Service 'auth-starter-server' failed to build : The command '/bin/sh -c npm install' returned a non-zero code: 1

Something I noticed is that's not using the official npm registry, even though that hasn't been set up as the default registry. Here the npm configuration (got by running npm config ls -l):

cli configs
long = true
metrics-registry = "https://registry.npmjs.org/"
scope = ""
user-agent = "npm/6.14.9 node/v15.4.0 darwin x64"

; builtin config undefined
prefix = "/usr/local"

; default values
access = null
allow-same-version = false
also = null
always-auth = false
audit = true
audit-level = "low"
auth-type = "legacy"
before = null
bin-links = true
browser = null
ca = null
cache = "/Users/ale917k/.npm"
cache-lock-retries = 10
cache-lock-stale = 60000
cache-lock-wait = 10000
cache-max = null
cache-min = 10
cafile = undefined
cert = null
cidr = null
color = true
commit-hooks = true
depth = null
description = true
dev = false
dry-run = false
editor = "vi"
engine-strict = false
fetch-retries = 2
fetch-retry-factor = 10
fetch-retry-maxtimeout = 60000
fetch-retry-mintimeout = 10000
force = false
format-package-lock = true
fund = true
git = "git"
git-tag-version = true
global = false
global-style = false
globalconfig = "/usr/local/etc/npmrc"
globalignorefile = "/usr/local/etc/npmignore"
group = 20
ham-it-up = false
heading = "npm"
https-proxy = null
if-present = false
ignore-prepublish = false
ignore-scripts = false
init-author-email = ""
init-author-name = ""
init-author-url = ""
init-license = "ISC"
init-module = "/Users/ale917k/.npm-init.js"
init-version = "1.0.0"
json = false
key = null
legacy-bundling = false
link = false
local-address = undefined
loglevel = "notice"
logs-max = 10
; long = false (overridden)
maxsockets = 50
message = "%s"
; metrics-registry = null (overridden)
node-options = null
node-version = "15.4.0"
noproxy = null
offline = false
onload-script = null
only = null
optional = true
otp = null
package-lock = true
package-lock-only = false
parseable = false
prefer-offline = false
prefer-online = false
; prefix = "/usr/local/Cellar/node/15.4.0" (overridden)
preid = ""
production = false
progress = true
proxy = null
read-only = false
rebuild-bundle = true
registry = "https://registry.npmjs.org/"
rollback = true
save = true
save-bundle = false
save-dev = false
save-exact = false
save-optional = false
save-prefix = "^"
save-prod = false
scope = ""
script-shell = null
scripts-prepend-node-path = "warn-only"
searchexclude = null
searchlimit = 20
searchopts = ""
searchstaleness = 900
send-metrics = false
shell = "/bin/zsh"
shrinkwrap = true
sign-git-commit = false
sign-git-tag = false
sso-poll-frequency = 500
sso-type = "oauth"
strict-ssl = true
tag = "latest"
tag-version-prefix = "v"
timing = false
tmp = "/var/folders/2t/36_q44_s62d1b57hnl0l8khw0000gn/T"
umask = 18
unicode = true
unsafe-perm = true
update-notifier = true
usage = false
user = 0
; user-agent = "npm/{npm-version} node/{node-version} {platform} {arch} {ci}" (overridden)
userconfig = "/Users/ale917k/.npmrc"
version = false
versions = false
viewer = "man"

Can it be the reason why it stopped building is because it's pointing to the wrong registry? And if so, how can that be fixed?

Bit on a side, I noticed as well that warning regarding the npm update; How can I update the npm package inside a docker image?

Any answer is highly appreciated, so thank you for your inputs!

Answer 1

Found out my company's server went down, bringing down related registries and similar.

That resulted in not being able to process the package installation, as for some reason I seemed to have dependency leftovers from the company custom registry.

In order to fix this, I:

1. Firstly created different npmrc profiles, to make sure we use the appropriate registry when working on a specific project - Ref can be found here

2. Have then deleted node_modules and package-lock.json to cleanup leftovers

3. Set the profile pointing to the open-source registry (https://registry.npmjs.org/) with npmrc <profile>

4. (Optional): Check active registry profile by simply running npmrc

5. Reinstalled all packages with npm install

6. Rebuild docker-image with docker-compose up --build and that made the job

Hope this may help other people in the future

Answer 2

I have been encountering this same issue and later realized that I had a bad network connection which caused the ERR_SOCKET_TIMEOUT.

Its not due to Run npm install -g [email protected] to update!`. As you can see below its still up and running

Answer 3

How i solved the problem.

I noticed the issue start's acting up on after the package-lock.json patched this way.

When you try installing locally on the PC you get:

pm WARN old lockfile 
npm WARN old lockfile The package-lock.json file was created with an old version of npm,
npm WARN old lockfile so supplemental metadata must be fetched from the registry.
npm WARN old lockfile 
npm WARN old lockfile This is a one-time fix-up, please be patient...
npm WARN old lockfile 
....
# installs packages and finish

On docker npm ci keeps timing out.

Solution

NB: Ensure your running the latest npm and node version on your PC.

sudo apt install npm nodejs doesn't cut it.

Upgrade the node version:

• Install packages: sudo apt install npm nodejs
• Run: curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo -E bash -
• Then: sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
• Then Upgrade NPM : sudo npm install -g npm@latest

After upgrading reinstall the packages like below:

• Remove package-lock.json
• Remove node_modules
• Re-install the packages with npm install

Now run your docker.

Answer 4

Try add tty: true, something like this

 backend:
    build: 
      context: ./backend
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    
    tty: true

Answer 5

i have the same issue with Dockerfile node base image version 16, so downgrade to 14 solve the problem instead of "node:latest" use "node:14"

Answer 6

I was facing the same issue and none of the above solutions worked. I resolved it by package-lock.json file in Dockerfile before RUN npm run install command. So modifying the above Dockerfile as below solved it.

FROM node:latest
WORKDIR /usr/src/auth-starter-server
COPY package.json ./
COPY package-lock.json ./
RUN npm install
CMD ["sh"]

I guess adding package-lock.json before tremendously reduces the time to download packages and it's dependencies.