"sqlplus": executable file not found in $PATH" when running a command with docker exec

Question

I want to start a Docker-container with Oracle XE and then run an SQL script (ddl.sql) to create some tables.

If I execute all the steps separately, everything works:

$ docker run -d --name db --rm -p 49161:1521 -v "C:/data/workspace/vpk/":/home/vpk -e ORACLE_ALLOW_REMOTE=true wnameless/oracle-xe-11g

Run a terminal in container:

$ docker exec -it db bash

Execute the script:

root@f3ae34d554af:/# echo exit | sqlplus system/oracle@xe @/home/vpk/ddl.sql

However when I tried to combine the last two steps into one:

$ docker exec db sqlplus system/oracle@xe @/home/vpk/ddl.sql

I got the error:

OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: container_linux.go:348: starting container process caused "exec: \"sqlplus\": executable file not found in $PATH": unknown

Using the full path of sqlplus didn't help either:

$ docker exec db bash -c "/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/bin/sqlplus system/oracle@xe /home/vpk/ddl.sql"
Error 6 initializing SQL*Plus
SP2-0667: Message file sp1<lang>.msb not found
SP2-0750: You may need to set ORACLE_HOME to your Oracle software directory

What is the reason of the error?

With the help of @maxm I was able to successfully run:

docker exec -it db /bin/bash -c "ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/bin/sqlplus system/oracle@xe @/home/vpk/ddl.sql"

However I would like to exit the sqlplus prompt afterwards. But when I tried to add echo exit to it and run:

docker exec -it db /bin/bash -c "ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe; echo exit | /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/bin/sqlplus system/oracle@xe @/home/vpk/ddl.sql"

I got the error:

Error 6 initializing SQL*Plus
SP2-0667: Message file sp1<lang>.msb not found
SP2-0750: You may need to set ORACLE_HOME to your Oracle software directory

Answer 1

The sqlplus bin location is added to your PATH in the .bashrc, see this line in the setup:

echo 'export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH' >> /etc/bash.bashrc

When you run exec directly without calling bash it's going to try and run the command with sh -c and the .bashrc won't be loaded. Try running this to run the file directly:

docker exec db /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/bin/sqlplus system/oracle@xe @/home/vpk/ddl.sql

I also though running with bash -c "command" might load .bashrc, but it doesn't seem to, might want to read up on how bash loads the .bashrc file.

Edit:

As referenced in the comment below ORACLE_HOME isn't set. This command should work:

docker exec -it db /bin/bash -c "ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/bin/sqlplus system/oracle@xe /home/vpk/ddl.sql"