Installing native node modules

[luzlab]

Hi - I'm trying to dockerize a meteor app that uses the node-rdkafka npm module. This requires node-gyp, an npm module, to be installed globally.

I tried a few things:

1. Adding node-gyp to package json as a regular dependancy. Result: Successfully build the docker container.

2. Adding a preinstall script with npm install --global node-gyp. Result: Node-gyp fails to install globally and the docker container fails to build.

3. Adding a preinstall script with npm install node-gyp. Result: Node-gyp installs locally but fails to run and the docker container fails to build.\

What do you think the best way to handle npm dependancies that require node-gyp? My thought is to handle node-gyp installation like the optional dependancies and add a INSTALL_NODE_GYP build arg/launchpad.conf variable.