aws-lambda-libreoffice

Utility to work with Docker version of LibreOffice in Lambda

Install

$ pnpm add @shelf/aws-lambda-libreoffice

Features

• ESM Module Support: Native ESM package with full TypeScript support
• Includes CJK and X11 fonts bundled in the base Docker image!
• Relies on the latest LibreOffice 7.6 version which is not stripped down from features
• Requires Node.js 22 or higher (x86_64)

Requirements

Lambda Docker Image

First, you need to create a Docker image for your Lambda function. See the example at libreoffice-lambda-base-image repo.

Example:

FROM public.ecr.aws/shelf/lambda-libreoffice-base:7.6-node20-x86_64

COPY ./ ${LAMBDA_TASK_ROOT}/

RUN pnpm install

CMD [ "handler.handler" ]

Lambda Configuration

• At least 3008 MB of RAM is recommended
• At least 45 seconds of Lambda timeout is necessary
• For larger files support, you can extend Lambda's /tmp space using the ephemeral-storage parameter
• Set environment variable HOME to /tmp

Usage (ESM)

This package is now a native ESM module. If you're using CommonJS, you'll need to use dynamic imports or update your project to use ESM.

ESM Usage (Recommended)

import {convertTo, canBeConvertedToPDF} from '@shelf/aws-lambda-libreoffice';

export const handler = async () => {
  // assuming there is a document.docx file inside /tmp dir
  // original file will be deleted afterwards

  // it is optional to invoke this function, you can skip it if you're sure about file format
  if (!canBeConvertedToPDF('document.docx')) {
    return false;
  }

  return convertTo('document.docx', 'pdf'); // returns /tmp/document.pdf
};

CommonJS Usage (via dynamic import)

module.exports.handler = async () => {
  const {convertTo, canBeConvertedToPDF} = await import('@shelf/aws-lambda-libreoffice');

  if (!canBeConvertedToPDF('document.docx')) {
    return false;
  }

  return convertTo('document.docx', 'pdf'); // returns /tmp/document.pdf
};

Troubleshooting

• Please allocate at least 3008 MB of RAM for your Lambda function.
• If some file fails to be converted to PDF, try converting it to PDF on your computer first. This might be an issue with LibreOffice itself
  • If you want to include some fonts/plugins to the libreoffice, contribute to the libreoffice-lambda-base-image instead

See Also

• libreoffice-lambda-base-image - a base Docker image for your Lambdas
• serverless-libreoffice - original implementation
• aws-lambda-tesseract
• aws-lambda-brotli-unpacker
• chrome-aws-lambda

Test

Beside unit tests that could be run via pnpm test, there are integration tests.

Running Tests

# Unit tests
pnpm test

# Integration test with Docker/Podman
cd test
./test.sh

# The test will:
# 1. Build the ESM code and transpile to CommonJS for Lambda compatibility
# 2. Process all files in test-data/ directory
# 3. Generate PDFs in the same test-data/ directory
# 4. Show conversion summary

The test setup includes:

• Automatic ESM to CommonJS transpilation using esbuild
• Batch conversion of multiple file types (DOCX, HTML, etc.)
• Volume mounting for easy PDF retrieval
• Sample test files in test/test-data/

Publish

$ git checkout master
$ yarn version
$ yarn publish
$ git push origin master --tags

License

MIT © Shelf