I have a docker image containing an NodeJS app. The Dockerfile is:

FROM node:8
WORKDIR /app
ADD . /app
RUN npm install
EXPOSE 80
ENTRYPOINT [ "/bin/sh", "./start.sh" ]

The start.sh script is:

#!/bin/bash
...
echo "Starting application"
npm start

I'm able to launch and test the image manually:

$ gcloud docker -- run -it --rm my-container
...
Starting application
...
> node index.js
...

The same container is used by a kubernetes deployment:

apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Deployment
...
spec:
  ...
  template:
    ...
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: my-container
...

The container starts, the start.sh script is correctly executed but it terminates and the container goes into a CrashLoopBackOff loop.

After inspecting the pod manually:

kubectl exec -ti my-pod -- bash
I have no name!@my-pod:/app# cat /etc/passwd
... empty response

-> It appears that somehow there are no system users on the container, which makes most commands (like npm) fail silently and terminate the container

I have also tried, without success:

• deleting the pod
• deleting and re-creating the deployment
• running the node image with the node user -> unable to find user node: no matching entries in passwd file

Last note: I actually have many deployments (using the same template with just a different name) which are running fine with an image that was built a few days ago with the same source code.

For some deployments, it actually worked after manually deleting the pod and letting kubernetes recreate it.

Any ideas?

Edit 18/01/2018 I have tried rebuilding an image with the same source code that old working images use, without success. I have also tried a simpler Dockerfile:

FROM node:8
USER node

But I still get an error related to the fact that no users seem to be there:

Error response from daemon: {"message":"linux spec user: unable to find user node: no matching entries in passwd file"}

I have checked with the docker-node guys, the image hasn't changed recently. Could it be related to kubernetes changes? Keep it mind that my images do run when I run them manually with the docker command.