Building `node:slim` docker container with your node_modules via `node:build` container on Mac.

buildNodeImage.js

/* eslint-disable no-use-before-define, camelcase */

import cp from 'child_process';
import fsExtra from 'fs-extra';
import hashFiles from 'hash-files';
import chalk from 'chalk';
import {
  repositoryName,
  rootDir,
  buildEnv,
  isDockerImageExists,
  getContainerInfo,
} from '../config';

const imageName = `${repositoryName}/node-modules`;
const ramDiskName = `docker_${new Date().toJSON().slice(0, 19).replace(/[^0-9]+/g, '')}`;
const dockerContextFolder = `/Volumes/${ramDiskName}`;
console.log(imageName);

export default function build_DockerContainer_With_NodeModules() {
  const imageTag = calcPackageHash(buildEnv);
  const imageNameWithTag = `${imageName}:${imageTag}`;

  if (!isDockerImageExists(imageNameWithTag)) {
    try {
      console.log(`Mounting RAM disk ${ramDiskName}`);
      mountRamDisk();

      console.log(
        chalk.magenta('Installing node_modules for debian '
                    + 'via Docker container (node:onbuild 650MB) to the RAM disk')
      );
      npmInstallViaFatContainer(buildEnv);

      console.log(chalk.magenta(`Creating slim docker image: ${imageNameWithTag}...`));
      createDockerContainer(imageNameWithTag);
    } finally {
      console.log(`Unmounting RAM disk ${ramDiskName}`);
      unmountRamDisk();
    }

    console.log(chalk.magenta('Docker container with NODE_MODULES successfully builded.'));
  } else {
    console.log(chalk.magenta('Docker container with NODE_MODULES already exists.'));
  }
  console.log(chalk.magenta(getContainerInfo(imageNameWithTag)));
  console.log(chalk.magenta('You can run container via command:'));
  console.log(chalk.bold.magenta(`docker run -i -t ${imageNameWithTag} /bin/bash`));

  return {
    name: imageName,
    tag: imageTag,
    nameWithTag: imageNameWithTag,
  };
}

function createDockerContainer(imageNameWithTag) {
  const dockerfile = [
    'FROM node:slim', // 120MB container only with node
    'WORKDIR /src',
    'COPY . /src',
  ];
  fsExtra.outputFileSync(`${dockerContextFolder}/Dockerfile`, dockerfile.join('\n'));

  cp.execSync(`docker build \
    -t ${imageNameWithTag} \
    ${dockerContextFolder}`,
    {
      cwd: dockerContextFolder,
      stdio: [0, 1, 2],
    }
  );
}

function npmInstallViaFatContainer(env) {
  fsExtra.emptyDirSync(dockerContextFolder);
  fsExtra.copySync(`${rootDir}/package.json`, `${dockerContextFolder}/package.json`);
  fsExtra.copySync(`${rootDir}/yarn.lock`, `${dockerContextFolder}/yarn.lock`);
  const npmInstallCmd = (env === 'production')
    // ? 'npm install --production'
    ? 'curl -o- -L https://yarnpkg.com/install.sh | bash && ~/.yarn/bin/yarn install --production && rm -rf ~/.yarn'
    : 'npm install';

  // IMPORTANT: `node:onbuild` is 650MB container with build scripts
  // needed for build `fsevent` and `crypto` bin-files for debian
  cp.execSync(`docker run \
             -t --rm -v ${dockerContextFolder}:/src \
             node:onbuild \
             /bin/bash -c "cd /src && ${npmInstallCmd}"`,
    {
      cwd: dockerContextFolder,
      stdio: [0, 1, 2],
    }
  );
}

function calcPackageHash(env) {
  const hash = hashFiles.sync({
    files: [
      `${rootDir}/package.json`,
    ],
  });

  return `${env}-${hash}`;
}

function mountRamDisk() {
  cp.execSync(`diskutil erasevolume hfsx ${ramDiskName} \`hdiutil attach -nomount ram://1000000\``,
    { stdio: [0, 1, 2] }
  );
}

function unmountRamDisk() {
  cp.execSync(`diskutil unmountDisk force ${ramDiskName}`,
    { stdio: [0, 1, 2] }
  );
}

Yarn 0.17.10 may not install all needed packages with --production flag.
So you should change:

'curl -o- -L https://yarnpkg.com/install.sh | bash && ~/.yarn/bin/yarn install --production && rm -rf ~/.yarn'

on lates nightly build 0.19.0-20161207.1241, which works correctly fo me:

wget https://yarnpkg.com/install.sh && chmod +x install.sh && ./install.sh --nightly && rm -f install.sh && ~/.yarn/bin/yarn install --production && rm -rf ~/.yarn

Related issue: yarnpkg/yarn#761