Install docker as per latest instructions at
https://docs.docker.com/installation/
e.g. for Ubuntu 14.04
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-image-generic-lts-trusty wget
wget -qO- https://get.docker.com/ | sh
add yourself to docker group for when you get fed up with all the sudo below...
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
sudo service docker restart
install Node-RED from the gist above
sudo docker build -rm -t davecj/node-red http://gist.github.com/raw/9435867/Dockerfile
or
sudo docker build -rm -t davecj/node-red git://gist.github.com/9435867.git
(or copy / paste the Dockerfile and build)
sudo docker build -rm -t davecj/node-red - < Dockerfile
Note: there will be errors during the npm install - but they should be warnings about gyp failing to build icu and serialport - but they will fail back to pr-compiled versions ok. So all should be ok.
run (as daemon)
sudo docker run -d -p 1880:1880 --name mynodered davecj/node-red
start a command line inside the container
sudo docker run -it --rm -p 1880:1880 --name mynodered davecj/node-red /bin/bash
show running containers
sudo docker ps -a
show all images (so you can tidy up)
sudo docker images