Deno's built-in SQLite module is a fantastic way to integrate a lightweight database into your Deno applications. However, to work its magic, it relies on a native SQLite library that needs to be present in your environment.

If you're running one of Ubuntu, MacOS, or Windows, you're in luck: Deno has you covered with precompiled binaries for these platforms. But if you're using Alpine Linux, things get a bit trickier since Deno doesn't provide a precompiled SQLite library for this distribution.

Try to run a Deno application that uses SQLite on Alpine Linux without any additional setup, and you'll get an error like this:

3.013 Downloading https://github.com/denodrivers/sqlite3/releases/download/0.13.0/libsqlite3.so
4.094 error: Uncaught (in promise) Error: Failed to load SQLite3 Dynamic Library
4.094   throw new Error("Failed to load SQLite3 Dynamic Library", { cause: e });
4.094         ^
4.094     at https://jsr.io/@db/sqlite/0.13.0/src/ffi.ts:642:9
4.094 Caused by: Error: Could not open library: Could not open library: /usr/local/lib/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.38' not found (required by /deno-dir/plug/https/github.com/2d624d1cb94dc52a04dcb942d98592ad72012273e34867346f5dde5d01035183.so)
4.094     at new DynamicLibrary (ext:deno_ffi/00_ffi.js:457:42)
4.094     at Object.dlopen (ext:deno_ffi/00_ffi.js:563:10)
4.094     at dlopen (https://jsr.io/@denosaurs/plug/1.1.0/mod.ts:158:15)
4.094     at eventLoopTick (ext:core/01_core.js:187:7)
4.094     at async https://jsr.io/@db/sqlite/0.13.0/src/ffi.ts:625:7

What this tells us is that Deno attempted to download a precompiled SQLite library that depends on glibc, the GNU C Library. However, Alpine Linux uses musl as its standard C library, which is not compatible with the prebuilt sqlite binary.

Luckily, Deno can use any precompiled SQLite library that matches its expected version. For Alpine Linux, you can leverage the libsqlite3 package available in the Alpine repositories.

You can install it using the apk command:

apk add libsqlite3

This command installs the necessary SQLite library on your Alpine system, however in order for Deno to find and use it, you will need to set the DENO_SQLITE_PATH environment variable to point to the location of the installed library.

You can find the library at /usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0 after installation. Set the environment variable like this:

export DENO_SQLITE_PATH=/usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0

That's nice and all but I use Docker?

Easy peasy! Here's a simple Dockerfile that sets up a Deno environment on Alpine Linux with SQLite support:

# Use the official Deno Alpine image as the base
FROM denoland/deno:alpine-2.6.5

# Expose port 8000 for the application
EXPOSE 8000

# Install system SQLite library
RUN apk add --no-cache sqlite-libs

# Set working directory and permissions
WORKDIR /app
RUN mkdir /app/data && chown -R deno:deno /app
USER deno

# Copy deno.json and deno.lock files
COPY deno.* .

# Set the DENO_SQLITE_PATH environment variable to point to the installed SQLite library
ENV DENO_SQLITE_PATH=/usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0

# Pre-install app dependencies
RUN deno install --frozen=true
# Force Deno to load the SQLite module and download any necessary files, ensuring everything is set up correctly
RUN deno eval "import 'jsr:@db/sqlite';"

# Copy application source code
COPY src/ ./src/
# Install any other dependencies
RUN deno install --entrypoint src/main.ts

# Command to run the application (assumes you have a `prod` task in your deno.json)
CMD ["deno", "run", "prod"]

Wrapping Up

Hope this was helpful to you, random internet stranger! It certainly took me a bit of digging to figure this out, so hopefully this saves you some time! 🙃