cross-env not found

I followed the instructions to run docker for development. I ran docker-compose -f docker-compose-development.yml build and it succeeded, but then docker-compose -f docker-compose-development.yml up failed because one of the npm scripts was looking for cross-env and couldn’t find it. Here’s the trace:

Williams-MacBook-Pro:mern-starter William$ docker-compose -f docker-compose-development.yml up
Starting mernstarter_db_1
Creating mernstarter_web_1
Attaching to mernstarter_db_1, mernstarter_web_1
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.921+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] MongoDB starting : pid=1 port=27017 dbpath=/data/db 64-bit host=e0f5427f51b1
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.922+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] db version v3.2.7
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.922+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] git version: 4249c1d2b5999ebbf1fdf3bc0e0e3b3ff5c0aaf2
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.922+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.922+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] allocator: tcmalloc
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.922+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] modules: none
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.922+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] build environment:
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.922+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten]     distmod: debian71
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.922+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten]     distarch: x86_64
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.922+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten]     target_arch: x86_64
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.922+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] options: {}
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.926+0000 I STORAGE  [initandlisten] wiredtiger_open config: create,cache_size=1G,session_max=20000,eviction=(threads_max=4),config_base=false,statistics=(fast),log=(enabled=true,archive=true,path=journal,compressor=snappy),file_manager=(close_idle_time=100000),checkpoint=(wait=60,log_size=2GB),statistics_log=(wait=0),
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.975+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten]
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.975+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] ** WARNING: /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled is 'always'.
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.975+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] **        We suggest setting it to 'never'
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.975+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten]
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.975+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] ** WARNING: /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag is 'always'.
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.975+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] **        We suggest setting it to 'never'
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.975+0000 I CONTROL  [initandlisten]
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.976+0000 I FTDC     [initandlisten] Initializing full-time diagnostic data capture with directory '/data/db/diagnostic.data'
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.976+0000 I NETWORK  [HostnameCanonicalizationWorker] Starting hostname canonicalization worker
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:42:58.990+0000 I NETWORK  [initandlisten] waiting for connections on port 27017
web_1  | npm info it worked if it ends with ok
web_1  | npm info using npm@3.9.5
web_1  | npm info using node@v6.2.2
web_1  | npm info lifecycle mern-starter@2.0.0~prestart: mern-starter@2.0.0
web_1  | npm info lifecycle mern-starter@2.0.0~start: mern-starter@2.0.0
web_1  |
web_1  | > mern-starter@2.0.0 start /usr/src/app
web_1  | > cross-env BABEL_DISABLE_CACHE=1 NODE_ENV=development nodemon index.js
web_1  |
web_1  | sh: 1: cross-env: not found
web_1  |
web_1  | npm info lifecycle mern-starter@2.0.0~start: Failed to exec start script
web_1  | npm ERR! Linux 4.4.13-moby
web_1  | npm ERR! argv "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "start"
web_1  | npm ERR! node v6.2.2
web_1  | npm ERR! npm  v3.9.5
web_1  | npm ERR! file sh
web_1  | npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
web_1  | npm ERR! errno ENOENT
web_1  | npm ERR! syscall spawn
web_1  | npm ERR! mern-starter@2.0.0 start: `cross-env BABEL_DISABLE_CACHE=1 NODE_ENV=development nodemon index.js`
web_1  | npm ERR! spawn ENOENT
web_1  | npm ERR!
web_1  | npm ERR! Failed at the mern-starter@2.0.0 start script 'cross-env BABEL_DISABLE_CACHE=1 NODE_ENV=development nodemon index.js'.
web_1  | npm ERR! Make sure you have the latest version of node.js and npm installed.
web_1  | npm ERR! If you do, this is most likely a problem with the mern-starter package,
web_1  | npm ERR! not with npm itself.
web_1  | npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
web_1  | npm ERR!     cross-env BABEL_DISABLE_CACHE=1 NODE_ENV=development nodemon index.js
web_1  | npm ERR! You can get information on how to open an issue for this project with:
web_1  | npm ERR!     npm bugs mern-starter
web_1  | npm ERR! Or if that isn't available, you can get their info via:
web_1  | npm ERR!     npm owner ls mern-starter
web_1  | npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.
web_1  | npm WARN Local package.json exists, but node_modules missing, did you mean to install?
web_1  |
web_1  | npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
web_1  | npm ERR!     /usr/src/app/npm-debug.log
db_1   | 2016-06-22T17:43:00.260+0000 I NETWORK  [initandlisten] connection accepted from 172.17.0.1:50694 #1 (1 connection now open)
mernstarter_web_1 exited with code 1

[iphilgood]

I found this post considering the problem we have here.

This is because the mounting of the volume by docker-compose would supercede the node_modules that was installed in your built image. This causes the volume to overwrite ontop of the built image.

So what I did was updating the volumes section in the docker-compose.yml.

web:
  build: .
  ...
  volumes:
   - .:/usr/src/app/
   - /usr/src/app/node_modules

After this I’ve built the container again and everything worked like a charm 🎉.

Initially I thought it was the version of docker-compose, because I had a Ubuntu 16.04 running with version 1.5.0. Locally on my machine I was running with 1.8.0 and didn’t encounter the error.

[karudo]

My fix for this problem: https://github.com/karudo/mern-starter/commit/095d3a5e07154d9daa3cdfc9d1f1075fe4b914c9 It is not good, but it’s work.