How to install npm modules?

[ebauger]

@nebulon my proposal is to install the modules when we build the image from the Dockerfile. I open to any other solution.

The modules installed will be on the read-only filesystem. See the Diff from this source

...
# Add a script to install npm packages from env.sh
COPY install_packages_from_env.sh /app/pkg/
RUN chmod +x /app/pkg/install_packages_from_env.sh
...
# install custom npm modules from the env.sh on the NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL
RUN /app/pkg/install_packages_from_env.sh /app/data/env.sh
...

[BrutalBirdie]

@ebauger
Docker images are build before runtime.
/app/data does only exist on runtime.
So the command:

RUN /app/pkg/install_packages_from_env.sh /app/data/env.sh

will not work.

But I understand where the intention is.

[girish]

Recently, with nodebb we started experimenting with making the node_modules writable (grudgingly). Maybe we can do the same for n8n.

[shrey]

@girish Certainly support this effort!

[girish]

This is implemented in https://docs.cloudron.io/apps/n8n/#custom-node-modules .

@shrey let me know if you get a chance to test it.

[shrey]

@girish Just tried it. Seems to work alright!