How to create index.html using dockerfile?

Question

I'm trying to create a simple static web using nginx, and want to have everything created by Dockerfile, the problem is whenever I tried to create an index.html file, it comes out with error, I even tried to test it and its working with "index.htm" but not with the correct format.

FROM centos:7
#update and install nginx section
RUN yum update -y
RUN yum install -y epel-release
RUN yum install -y nginx
#create path and add index.html
WORKDIR /usr/share/nginx/html

#this one working with no issue 
RUN touch index.htm
#this one will get failed
RUN touch index.html

EXPOSE 80/tcp

CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"]

and this is the error output:

majid@DESKTOP-39CBKO0:~/nginx_simple_web$ docker build -t simple-web:v1 .
[+] Building 3.8s (11/11) FINISHED
 => [internal] load build definition from Dockerfile                                                          0.0s
 => => transferring dockerfile: 381B                                                                          0.0s
 => [internal] load .dockerignore                                                                             0.0s
 => => transferring context: 2B                                                                               0.0s
 => [internal] load metadata for docker.io/library/centos:7                                                   3.4s
 => [auth] library/centos:pull token for registry-1.docker.io                                                 0.0s
 => [1/7] FROM docker.io/library/centos:7@sha256:9d4bcbbb213dfd745b58be38b13b996ebb5ac315fe75711bd618426a630  0.0s
 => CACHED [2/7] RUN yum update -y                                                                            0.0s
 => CACHED [3/7] RUN yum install -y epel-release                                                              0.0s
 => CACHED [4/7] RUN yum install -y nginx                                                                     0.0s
 => CACHED [5/7] WORKDIR /usr/share/nginx/html                                                                0.0s
 => CACHED [6/7] RUN touch index.htm                                                                          0.0s
 => ERROR [7/7] RUN touch index.html                                                                          0.4s
------
 > [7/7] RUN touch index.html:
#11 0.357 touch: cannot touch 'index.html': No such file or directory
------
executor failed running [/bin/sh -c touch index.html]: exit code: 1
majid@DESKTOP-39CBKO0:~/nginx_simple_web$

Answer 1

The file already exists and is owned by root:

RUN ls -al index.html
 ---> Running in 27f9d0ae6240
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 Dec 23 12:08 index.html 
-> ../../doc/HTML/index.html

remove it and re-create it:

FROM centos:7
#update and install nginx section
RUN yum update -y
RUN yum install -y epel-release
RUN yum install -y nginx
RUN yum install -y vim
#create path and add index.html
WORKDIR /usr/share/nginx/html

RUN rm index.html
RUN touch index.html

EXPOSE 80/tcp

CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"]

Do note that you should, in general, combine multiple RUN commands together.

Answer 2

You can create a new file using echo:

RUN echo " " > index.htm