How to have docker and npm in gitlab-ci-runner-docker - docker

Question

I am using gitlab-ci with docker:dind as a service.
problem
I am trying in Gitlab-CI run npm run build followed by docker build.
I am able this way to build using docker in docker this way:
This is my runner config.toml:
$ cat /etc/gitlab-runner/config.toml
concurrent = 4
check_interval = 0
[[runners]]
name = "developers_gitlab_school-gitlab-runner-docker"
url = "https://school.domain.com"
token = "cd09f40c6a4....a44751fec795e35"
executor = "docker"
builds_dir = "/mnt/mesos/sandbox/builds"
cache_dir = "/mnt/mesos/sandbox/cache"
[runners.docker]
tls_verify = false
image = "docker:latest"
privileged = true
disable_cache = false
volumes = ["/cache"]
shm_size = 0
[runners.cache]
This is an example of .gitlab-ci.yml
image: docker:latest
# image: mcasimir/dind-node-build-runner:latest
variables:
DOCKER_DRIVER: overlay2
services:
- docker:dind
before_script:
- docker info
- docker --version
- docker login -u ${REGISTRY_USERNAME} -p ${REGISTRY_PASSWORD} ${REGISTRY_URL}
stages:
- build
# Job: Build
build_dev:
stage: build
script:
- docker build -t group/mail-server/dev:${CI_JOB_ID} .
only:
- dev
tags:
- docker
build_master:
stage: build
script:
- docker build -t domain/mail-server:${CI_JOB_ID} .
- docker build -t domain/mail-server:latest .
only:
- master
tags:
- docker
When I use an image with docker and npm for my build mcasimir/dind-node-build-runner:latest
I have :
Cannot connect to the Docker daemon. Is the docker daemon running on this host?.
When I use image docker:latest, docker-in-docker work fine but I still need npm.
question:
Because the Dockerfile of docker:latest is not public, and because I wasn't able to use apt-get from this image, I would like to know:
If there a way to have an image that can run docker and npm in gitlab-ci ?

Answer 1

Because it is an alpine-based image, you don't have apt-get, you have apk. So with the default docker:latest just add this apk --update add nodejs:
before_script:
- apk --update add nodejs npm
And you are ready with dind, nodejs and npm.

Answer 2

If we look into the source code for the docker container we can see one variable being set up: $DOCKER_HOST, and that's all you need just addexport DOCKER_HOST='tcp://docker:2375' as a step in your build or set DOCKER_HOST as a global variable. And then you can use any image you want, not just docker:latest.
dockeralpine:
image: alpine
services:
- docker:dind
variables:
DOCKER_HOST: "tcp://docker:2375"
tags:
- docker
script:
- apk --update add docker
- docker ps
dockerubuntu:
image: ubuntu
services:
- docker:dind
variables:
DOCKER_HOST: "tcp://docker:2375"
tags:
- docker
script:
- apt update
- apt install -yqq docker.io
- docker ps