Resolving "npm ERR! Maximum call stack size exceeded" error during Azure deployment

Other Questions NPM
1

I’m facing a challenging error while trying to deploy my app on Azure. The build consistently fails with the following error message:

npm WARN using --force Recommended protections disabled.
npm notice A new patch version of npm is out! 7.0.3 -> 7.0.6
npm notice Update by running npm install -g [email protected]!
npm ERR! Maximum call stack size exceeded
npm ERR! You can find a complete log of this run at:
npm ERR! /root/.npm/_logs/2020-10-29T21_07_47_731Z-debug.log

The Docker command that’s causing the issue looks like this:

RUN apk update \
    && apk add --no-cache --virtual .build-deps \
        python \
        make \
        g++ \
    && npm cache clean --force \
    && npm install --production \
    && apk del .build-deps

I attempted to clear the npm cache using the --force option, but that didn’t help. Has anyone experienced this stack overflow error in Azure? What additional steps can I take to resolve it?

2

had that issue b4 too. try deleting package-lock.json, then do npm install again - that lockfile can get jacked up during builds. also, watch out for wildcards in package.json versions, they can lead to some crazy loops when resolving deps. helped me on Azure!

3

Had this exact issue deploying a React app to Azure last month. npm was getting stuck in an infinite loop while resolving dependencies. I switched to yarn for the Docker build and it fixed everything. Just replace your npm install with yarn install --production --frozen-lockfile. The frozen lockfile flag stops yarn from trying to update dependencies during deployment. If you’re stuck with npm, try npm ci instead - it’s built for automated environments and avoids the dependency resolution issues that cause stack overflows. Also check if any dependencies have peer dependency conflicts creating circular references.

4

This usually happens when npm hits circular dependencies or corrupted package metadata. Since you’re already clearing the cache, try adding --no-optional to your npm install command - it’ll skip optional dependencies that might be causing the recursion. Also, pin your npm version in the Dockerfile with RUN npm install -g [email protected] before installing. The warning shows you’re on an older patch version. For Azure deployments specifically, I’ve found that bumping the Node.js heap size helps with stack overflow issues. Set NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096" as an environment variable before npm install when you’re dealing with large dependency trees.