title: Using Docker with nodejs with node-gyp dependencies
body: <p>I'm planning to use Docker to deploy a node.js app.  The app has several dependencies that require node-gyp.  Node-gyp builds these modules (e.g. canvas, lwip, qrcode) against compiled libraries on the delivery platform, and in my experience these builds can be highly dependent on the o/s version and libraries installed, and they often break a simple <em>npm install</em>.</p>
  
  <p>So is building my Dockerfile <strong>FROM node:version</strong> the correct approach?  This seems to be the approach shown in every Docker/Node tutorial I've found so far.  But if I build from a node image, what will happen when I deploy the container?  How can I ensure the target host will have the libraries needed to compile the node-gyp modules? </p>
  
  <p>The other way I'm looking at is to build the Dockerfile <strong>FROM ubuntu:version</strong>.   But I think this would mean installing nodeJS into the Ubuntu image and the whole thing would be much larger.</p>
  
  <p>Are there other ways of handling this?</p>