"invalid ELF header" when using the nodejs "ref" module on AWS Lambda

Question

I've just uploaded a zip to AWS Lambda which included the "ref" (https://www.npmjs.com/package/ref), which is needed to validate an iOS Game Center authentication token (How to authenticate Game Center User from 3rd party node.js server).

Unfortunately invoking it results in the "invalid ELF header" error,

{
  "errorMessage": "/var/task/node_modules/ref/build/Release/binding.node: invalid ELF header",
  "errorType": "Error",
  "stackTrace": [
    "Module.load (module.js:356:32)",
    "Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)",
    "Module.require (module.js:364:17)",
    "require (module.js:380:17)",
    "bindings (/var/task/node_modules/ref/node_modules/bindings/bindings.js:76:44)",
    "Object.<anonymous> (/var/task/node_modules/ref/lib/ref.js:5:47)",
    "Module._compile (module.js:456:26)",
    "Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)",
    "Module.load (module.js:356:32)",
    "Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)"
  ]
}

This has been developed on a 64bit Macbook Pro running Yosemite which has no problem running the code locally. Googling around for "invalid ELF header" has yielded little to know relevant results and I'm really not sure where to go from here. Would I be better asking this in a node.js area, or is this the relevant area, because it might be an issue with the platform?

Node modules that include native code must be built on (or for) the target platform. Rebuild your node modules on the target platform. — Joe, May 01 '15 at 20:47

score 69 · Accepted Answer · answered May 01 '15 at 20:43

69

This happens when you build on one architecture and then attempt to use the same built addon on a different architecture (or platform in some cases).

According to this page, addons may have to be compiled against an Amazon Linux image on EC2 in order for the compiled addons to be usable on their Lambda service.

answered May 01 '15 at 20:43

mscdex

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Great information in the link. I just wanted to add that the EC2 instance to spin should be with name similar to (AMI name: amzn-ami-hvm-2016.03.3.x86_64-gp2) based on http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/current-supported-versions.html. In case you don't know which one to create. – zeta Feb 01 '17 at 18:29
2

Happens too often while using VMs too, so heads-up, solid answer. – Milan Velebit Sep 08 '17 at 14:18

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

7

This doesn't apply exactly to your question, but in case anyone stumbles across this when using AWS Elastic Beanstalk, it could be a result of uploading the node_modules/ directory along with everything else, so you need to force it to ignore the file.

`.ebignore`

node_modules/

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

1
1

answered Aug 14 '19 at 19:40

Matt Fletcher

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I have been struggling this for a while, thanks for you answer. My initial guess was the EOF line problem because I was doing my development on Windows, and the application runs on AWS Linux container. – ascetic652 Jun 19 '20 at 15:36
Wow that was exactly what happened to me on Lightsail. Webstorm uploaded even though I didn’t want to – Julian Wagner Apr 03 '21 at 07:14

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 03 '21 at 07:13

Here is the answer to your question that I found on Reddit:

[SOLVED BY JeffGebhart] https://hub.docker.com/r/lambci/lambda/

Then SSH into EC2 instance running Amazon Linux 2.

Install npm with nvm and docker and run

docker pull lambci/lambda

run

mkdir LambdaFunction

run

npm init

and initialize everything.

then you need to be in that folder and run

docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/var/task lambci/lambda:build-nodejs12.x 
npm install <packages you need>

and it will build prover native modules in node_modules. Now you can extract all files to your PC or to your AWS.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 28 '21 at 11:53

1

For those Developers porting JS to TypeScript on Lambda, ensure ALL dependancies are imported, not required:

import $ from "cheerio";

NOT

const $ = require("cheerio");

answered Aug 28 '21 at 11:53

Jason Mullings

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 15 '21 at 03:57

0

Again, for anyone close to tears on this issue, try individually packaging your functions:

serverless.ts /.yml

Blockquote

  package: {
    individually: true   
},

answered Sep 15 '21 at 03:57

Jason Mullings

850
14
10

"invalid ELF header" when using the nodejs "ref" module on AWS Lambda

5 Answers5

`.ebignore`

Linked