Draw.io Desktop Headless docker image

Dockerized headless version of Draw.io Desktop v25.0.2

What it does

Draw.io Desktop exposes a command-line client to allow us to create, check or export diagrams.

Since Draw.io Desktop is a GUI application, we need a GUI environment to run it. And this prevents us to use it for automation in non-GUI environments such as CI tools.

This docker image enables us to run the command-line client in a headless mode by using a configurable X server.

Other minor additions are available

• Add timeout capability since the application can hang sometimes (due to user action needed in GUI mode)

• Clear the output log from Electron Security Warning

• Disable auto-update functionality to avoid unnecessary log

• Multiple fonts from

  • fonts-liberation

  • fonts-arphic-ukai

  • fonts-arphic-uming

  • fonts-noto

  • fonts-noto-cjk

  • fonts-ipafont-mincho

  • fonts-ipafont-gothic

  • fonts-unfonts-core

Note	Want a new font package, modify the Dockerfile to install the missing package.

Running

Default run

$ docker run -it -w /data -v $(pwd):/data rlespinasse/drawio-desktop-headless
Usage: drawio [options] [input file/folder]
...

Run using non-root user

$ docker run -it \
          -u $(id -u):$(id -g) \ (1)
          -e HOME=/data/home -w /data \ (2)
          -v /etc/passwd:/etc/passwd \ (3)
          -v $(pwd):/data rlespinasse/drawio-desktop-headless
Usage: drawio [options] [input file/folder]
...

1. Enable non-root user

2. env HOME need to contains the path of the working directory (can be the same)

   What if env HOME is not set properly?

   Fontconfig error: No writable cache directories
   A JavaScript error occurred in the main process
   Uncaught Exception:
   Error: Failed to get 'userData' path
       at initDataListener (/opt/drawio/resources/app.asar/node_modules/electron-store/index.js:15:19)
       at new ElectronStore (/opt/drawio/resources/app.asar/node_modules/electron-store/index.js:48:32)
       at Object.<anonymous> (/opt/drawio/resources/app.asar/src/main/electron.js:15:15)
       at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1271:14)
       at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1326:10)
       at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1126:32)
       at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:967:12)
       at l._load (node:electron/js2c/asar_bundle:2:13642)
       at node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:120247
       at node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:120456
   /opt/drawio-desktop/runner.sh: line 4:    15 Trace/breakpoint trap   (core dumped) "${DRAWIO_DESKTOP_EXECUTABLE_PATH:?}" "$@" --no-sandbox --disable-gpu

3. Needed to run drawio as non-root since v24.4.6

   What if this volume is not set properly?

   A JavaScript error occurred in the main process
   Uncaught Exception:
   SystemError [ERR_SYSTEM_ERROR]: A system error occurred: uv_os_get_passwd returned ENOENT (no such file or directory)
       at new SystemError (node:internal/errors:259:5)
       at new NodeError (node:internal/errors:370:7)
       at Object.userInfo (node:os:365:11)
       at file:///opt/drawio/resources/app.asar/node_modules/atomically/dist/constants.js:10:29
       at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:218:25)
       at async ModuleLoader.import (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:329:24)
       at async node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:125628
       at async loadESM (node:internal/process/esm_loader:28:7)

Configuration

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value
DRAWIO_DESKTOP_COMMAND_TIMEOUT	To prevent Draw.io Desktop process to hang indefinitely. The value is a floating point number with an optional suffix: 's' for seconds (the default), 'm' for minutes, 'h' for hours or 'd' for days. A duration of 0 disables the associated timeout.	10s
XVFB_DISPLAY	Screen Display setup for XVFB	:42
XVFB_OPTIONS	Options for Xvfb	-nolisten unix (enable non-root run)
ELECTRON_DISABLE_SECURITY_WARNINGS	Avoid printing electron warning	true
DRAWIO_DISABLE_UPDATE	Disable auto-update of Draw.io Desktop	true

Use as docker base image

This docker image can be used as the base image to build a higher-level tool upon it.

In addition to running configuration, you have access to

• DRAWIO_DESKTOP_EXECUTABLE_PATH to have access to the executable path of Draw.io Desktop.

• DRAWIO_DESKTOP_RUNNER_COMMAND_LINE to run your script instead of the default one.

Used by

• Docker image rlespinasse/drawio-export which enhance export capabilities of the Draw.io Desktop Headless docker image,

  • And GitHub Action rlespinasse/drawio-export-action which is build on top of drawio-export docker image.

Thanks to

Thanks for the community about the workaround docker-image based on Draw.io Desktop.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Please make sure to update tests as appropriate.