jodok/node-red repository overview

⁠Node-RED on Docker

This repository holds a build definition and supporting files for building a Docker image to run Node-RED⁠. It is published as automated build machine-data/node-red on Docker Hub⁠.

⁠What is Node-RED?

Node-RED⁠ is a tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.

⁠Yet another Node-RED container?

Not quite:

• Based on the official Alpine Linux image - super slim and lightweight.
• Only node.js and node-gyp as dependency (needed by some add-on packages⁠).
• No magic. Straight config that follows upstream. Simple and clean configuration via environment variables or config file.
• Image follows Dockerfile best practices⁠ (dropping root privileges, PID1 for proper signalling, logging,...)
• All user data under /data - ready-to mount.

⁠Quickstart

Simply start Node-RED and access it via http://{HOSTNAME}:1880:

$ docker run -d -p 1880:1880 machine-data/node-red

Application data (flows and add-on modules) is being stored in /data, therefore it is recommended to bind mount a volume.

$ mkdir data
$ docker run -d \
	--volume $(pwd)/data:/data \
	--publish 1880:1880 \
	machine-data/node-red

⁠Environment variables

It is very easy to configure Node-RED via environment variables. If no config file is present, the docker-entrypoint.sh script will create one based on sane defaults and environment variables.

• NODE_RED_FLOW_FILE: The file containing the flows. If not set, the image defaults flowFile to flows.json.

• NODE_RED_USER_DIR: The directory where all user data is stored. This translates to userDir in settings.js. In most cases it makes sense to keep the /data default.

-- Example: Starting Node-RED with my_flow.json from the host data directory /mnt/data/nodered/:

$ mkdir -p /mnt/data/flows
$ touch /mnt/data/flows/my_flow.json
$ docker run -d \
             -e NODE_RED_FLOW_FILE=my_flow.json \
             -v /mnt/data/flows:/data \
             -p 1880:1880 machine-data/node-red

will start Node-RED with the myflow.json flow.

Note: Node.js will also respect its own NPM_CONFIG_ variables.

⁠Configuration file

The container is configured to start Node-RED with /config/settings.js as config file. If a config file is mounted (preferably read-only), the NODE_RED_ environment variables will be ignored:

$ curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/node-red/node-red/master/settings.js
$ sed -i -e "s#//userDir: '.*'#userDir: '/data'#" settings.js
$ docker run -d \
             -v $(pwd)/settings.js:/config/settings.js:ro \
             -p 1880:1880 machine-data/node-red

⁠Volumes

• /data: Path where Node-RED's data is stored (userDir in Node-RED configuration). Packages that are installed via the webinterface will be stored in /data/node_modules.

When installing additional packages the npm installer will create a download cache under /tmp/.npm and further temp files in /tmp/.npm-*. You might want to bind mount your local temporary directory. To change these paths you need to overwrite the NPM_CONFIG_TMP and NPM_CONFIG_CACHE environment variables.

⁠Ports

• 1880: The default port where Node-RED is listening. Can be changed via $PORT environment variable.

⁠Legal

Node-RED is a creation of IBM Emerging Technology⁠, authored by Nick O'Leary⁠ and Dave Conway-Jones⁠. Copyright 2013, 2016 IBM Corp. under the Apache 2.0 license⁠.

docker-node-red is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license⁠, was created by Jodok Batlogg⁠. Copyright 2016 Crate.io, Inc.⁠.

⁠Contributing

Thanks for considering contributing to docker-node-red! The easiest way to contribute is either by filing an issue on Github⁠ or to fork the repository⁠ to create a pull request.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to join us on Slack.