---
title: "Distroless + sharp"
description: "Complete Dockerfile recipe — compile a Next.js app that uses sharp, ship on gcr.io/distroless/cc-debian12 with fontconfig for libvips text rendering."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://ramonmalcolm10.github.io/next-bun-compile/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Distroless + sharp

A minimal Next.js app that uses `sharp` (the dep `next/image`
server-side optimization pulls in), compiled to a single binary and
shipped on `gcr.io/distroless/cc-debian12`. Final image ~80MB.

This is the recipe **and** the e2e regression test — CI builds and
boots it on every PR.

The full working source is in
[`examples/sharp/`](https://github.com/ramonmalcolm10/next-bun-compile/tree/main/examples/sharp)
in the repo.

## Dockerfile

```dockerfile
# Stage 1: Build the binary
FROM oven/bun:1.3.14 AS builder

WORKDIR /app

COPY package.json bun.lock* ./
RUN bun install --no-save

COPY . .

# Install fontconfig + fonts in the builder so we can copy the
# artifacts into the distroless runner. The build itself doesn't
# need them, but fc-cache populates /var/cache/fontconfig with a
# fresh font cache the runner can use directly.
RUN apt-get update \
 && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends fontconfig fonts-dejavu-core \
 && fc-cache -f \
 && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

RUN bun run build

# Stage 2: Run the compiled binary
FROM gcr.io/distroless/cc-debian12:nonroot AS runner

WORKDIR /app

ENV NODE_ENV=production
ENV NEXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1
ENV HOSTNAME="0.0.0.0"

# Self-contained binary
COPY --from=builder --chown=nonroot:nonroot /app/dist/app ./

# Fontconfig + fonts + the C libs libvips dlopens for text rendering.
# cc-debian12 already has libstdc++ and libgcc; these complete the
# set.
COPY --from=builder /etc/fonts /etc/fonts
COPY --from=builder /usr/share/fontconfig /usr/share/fontconfig
COPY --from=builder /usr/share/fonts /usr/share/fonts
COPY --from=builder /var/cache/fontconfig /var/cache/fontconfig
COPY --from=builder /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfontconfig.so* /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
COPY --from=builder /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfreetype.so* /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
COPY --from=builder /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libexpat.so* /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
COPY --from=builder /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng16.so* /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/

EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["./app"]
```

## Why each piece

| Block                                                | Why                                                                                                                                       |
| ---------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `oven/bun:1.3.14` builder                            | Builds the binary. Debian-based so `apt-get` works.                                                                                       |
| `apt-get install fontconfig fonts-dejavu-core`       | libvips needs fontconfig + a font face for text rendering (watermarks, captions). Skip if you only do non-text sharp ops.                |
| `fc-cache -f`                                        | Populates `/var/cache/fontconfig` so the runner doesn't have to rebuild the cache on first text-render.                                  |
| `bun run build`                                      | `next build` with the adapter → `./dist/app`.                                                                                          |
| `gcr.io/distroless/cc-debian12:nonroot`              | Has glibc + libstdc++ + libgcc (the `cc` variant). The plain `base` variant lacks libstdc++ and sharp won't load.                       |
| `COPY /etc/fonts /usr/share/fontconfig ... /var/cache/fontconfig` | All the data fontconfig expects. Drop if you don't render text.                                                            |
| `COPY libfontconfig + libfreetype + libexpat + libpng16` | Runtime libs libvips dlopens. Same caveat as fonts.                                                                                  |

## If you don't need text rendering

Drop the `apt-get install fontconfig fonts-dejavu-core`, the
`fc-cache` line, and all the `COPY /etc/fonts`-and-friends blocks.
Shrinks the image by ~5MB.

## Different font face

Swap `fonts-dejavu-core` for whatever package provides the font your
watermark text uses:

- `fonts-liberation` (Arial/Helvetica/Times metric-compatible)
- `fonts-noto-core` (Noto fonts, broad Unicode coverage)
- `fonts-roboto`

## Other architectures

Set `NBC_TARGET=bun-linux-arm64` on the build. See
[Cross-compilation](/next-bun-compile/next-bun-compile/guides/cross-compilation/).

## Variants

- **alpine + bun runtime instead.** If you want to skip compilation
  altogether: use `oven/bun:1.3.14-alpine`, `apk add fontconfig
  ttf-dejavu`, `COPY .next/standalone .`, `CMD ["bun",
  "apps/web/server.js"]`. Larger image (~150MB), no compile step,
  same resolution behavior because it's the standard bun runtime.

- **Monorepo layout** with this same recipe — see
  [Monorepo + sharp](/next-bun-compile/next-bun-compile/recipes/monorepo-sharp/).

Source: https://ramonmalcolm10.github.io/next-bun-compile/recipes/distroless-sharp/index.mdx