Dockerfile manual install of multiple deb files

Question

Working with Docker and I notice almost everywhere the "RUN" command starts with an apt-get upgrade && apt-get install etc.

What if you don't have internet access and simply want to do a "dpkg -i ./deb-directory/*.deb" instead?

Well, I tried that and I keep failing. Any advice would be appreciated:

  dpkg: error processing archive ./deb-directory/*.deb (--install):
  cannot access archive: No such file or directory
 Errors were encountered while processing: ./deb-directory/*.deb
 INFO[0002] The command [/bin/sh -c dpkg -i ./deb-directory/*.deb] returned a non-zero code: 1`

To clarify, yes, the directory "deb-directory" does exist. In fact it is in the same directory as the Dockerfile where I build.

Answer 1

This is perhaps a bug, I'll open a ticket on their github to know. Edit: I did it here.

Edit2: Someone answered a better way of doing this on the github issue.

* is a shell metacharacter. You need to invoke a shell for it to be expanded.

docker run somecontainer sh -c 'dpkg -i /debdir/*.deb'

!!! Forget the following but I leave it here to keep track of my reflexion steps !!!

The problem comes from the * statement which doesn't seem to work well with the docker run dpkg command. I tried your command inside a container (using an interactive shell) and it worked well. It looks like dpkg is trying to install the so called ./deb-directory/*.deb file which doesn't exist instead of installing all the .deb files contained there.

I just implemented a workaround. Copy a .sh script in your container, chmod +x it and then use it as your command. (FYI, prefer using COPY instead of ADD when the file isn't remotely copied. Check the best practices for writing Dockerfiles for more info.)

This is my Dockerfile for example purpose:

FROM debian:latest
MAINTAINER Vrakfall <[email protected]>

COPY install.sh /
#debdir is a directory
COPY debdir /debdir
RUN chmod +x /install.sh

CMD ["/install.sh"]

The install.sh (copied at the root directory) simply contains:

#!/bin/bash
dpkg -i /debdir/*.deb

And the following

docker build -t debiantest .
docker run debiantest

works well and install all the packages contained in the /debdir directory.