No examples of path or dockerfile options

[bobvanderlinden]

I'm working on a project that has multiple Dockerfiles, each of them in a separate directory. One of those is named api, so the dockerfile is in api/Dockerfile. I have the following in my workflow:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - uses: docker/build-push-action@v1
      with:
        path: api
        username: companyusername
        password: companypassword
        repository: company/myproject/api
        registry: companyregistry
        tags: latest

I get the following error:

unable to prepare context: unable to evaluate symlinks in Dockerfile path: lstat /github/workspace/api/Dockerfile: no such file or directory

However, I see the checkout action logging the following:

Initializing the repository
  /usr/bin/git init /home/runner/work/myproject/myproject

From the documentation it is unclear that I should be using some variable to determine /home/runner/work/myproject/myproject instead of /github/workspace/. What am I doing wrong?

I also tried using dockerfile:, but also with the same results: always relative to /github/workspace.

[yordis]

@bobvanderlinden use uses: actions/checkout@v1 for now since it seems that the action is broken with v2

[bobvanderlinden]

I now have the following:

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v1
    - uses: docker/build-push-action@v1
      with:
        path: api
        username: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}
        password: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}
        repository: mycompany/myproject/api
        registry: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_REGISTRY }}
        tags: latest

and I'm still seeing:

unable to prepare context: unable to evaluate symlinks in Dockerfile path: lstat /github/workspace/api/Dockerfile: no such file or directory

[yordis]

I have the following

name: "Release"

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "production"

jobs:
  publish_docker_image:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Publish docker image
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v1
      - name: Publish image
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v1
        with:
          registry: docker.pkg.github.com
          username: $GITHUB_ACTOR
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          repository: org/repo/name
          tag_with_ref: true
          tag_with_sha: true

And it works.

Make sure you have a Dockerfile in the root of the project, double-check that.

[bobvanderlinden]

Your example doesn't have a path nor a dockerfile option. My project doesn't have a Dockerfile on the root of the repository, which is why I was forced to use the path option.

[sau00]

Got the same issue as @bobvanderlinden, looks like path option doesn't work at all.

[sau00]

Alright, I get it now.
If you want to use path and dockerfile options at the same time, you should make sure that your dockerfile option matches the pattern {path}/%Dockerfile%. Cause by default parttern is {path}/Dockerfile.

Examples
I have my dockerfile named Dockerfile.txt in ./backend/ folder, then my options should look like this:

path: backend
dockerfile: backend/Dockerfile.txt

Dockerfile is default name for dockerfiles. So if I have file named Dockerfile in ./frontend/ folder, then I just set path option like this:

path: frontend

[jonkight]

I'm seeing a similar issue with the following:

    steps:
      - uses: docker/build-push-action@v1
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}
          repository: my/repo
          tags: latest
          path: src/go/server

My Dockerfile is located at ./src/go/server/Dockerfile. Seeing the following:

unable to prepare context: path "src/go/server" not found

Any ideas what I'm missing?

[bobvanderlinden]

@sau00 that is quite useful to know. Such examples could be useful to have in the readme.

@jonkight did you do a checkout step?

[jonkight]

@bobvanderlinden
Great point! That was exactly my problem and everything works as expected now with the config I mentioned above. Not sure why I thought it would work without it, but at some point I removed the checkout I guess. Thanks for responding so quickly.

[jonkight]

@sau00 Thanks for your comment as well. It helped me validate what I was testing.

[bobvanderlinden]

If that works for you I have to revisit my example again, something must be wrong on my side of things.

[jonkight]

Here's what I got working as a test. Hopefully it helps. Repo is obviously fake, but everything else is real.

name: Build, test, and push Docker image

on: pull_request

jobs:
  vm-job:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.ref }}
          fetch-depth: 0
      - uses: docker/build-push-action@v1
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}
          repository: my/repo
          tags: latest
          path: src/go/server

[joebone]

Similar issue, but not sure how to resolve it...

Directory structure is:
/root/src/

The build context needs to be set to /root/src/,
and the Dockerfiles would be in [ /src/projecta/dockerfile, /src/projectb/dockerfile ] etc... but the context has to be the parent in order for the internal compilation step to be able to pull in inter-project dependencies.

running from a command line would be something along the lines of:
docker build -f Dockerfile ".."

or from the root:

docker build -f "./src/projecta/Dockerfile" "./src".

How can I represent this structure, as it seems the path is completely ignored..

[crazy-max]

Hi,

This will be solved through build-push-action v2 (#92) as it's written as a typescript-action to be as closed as possible of the GitHub Runner during its execution. You can already try it with:

• https://github.com/docker/setup-buildx-action
• https://github.com/docker/setup-qemu-action
• https://github.com/docker/login-action

[crazy-max]

Version 2 has been merged to the main branch and is therefore available via uses: docker/build-push-action@v2 (mutable tag).

As a reminder, this new version changes drastically and works with 3 new actions (login, setup-buildx and setup-qemu) that we have created. Many usage examples have been added to handle most use cases.

And it should fix this current issue. Don't hesitate if you have any questions.

[bobvanderlinden]

That looks good! Thanks a lot 👍

[dinvlad]

We're still seeing the same error, even with @v2. I wonder what that could be?

- uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v1
- uses: docker/build-push-action@v2
  with:
    context: ./path/to/context
    tags: docker/image/name:latest

Result:

Run docker/build-push-action@v2
  with:
    context: ./path/to/context
    push: true
    tags: docker/image/name:latest
    file: ./Dockerfile
    pull: false
    no-cache: false
    load: false
    github-token: ***
📣 Buildx version: 0.4.2
🏃 Starting build...
/usr/bin/docker buildx build --tag docker/image/name:latest --iidfile /tmp/docker-build-push-XMCDtE/iidfile --file ./Dockerfile --push ./path/to/context
time="2020-10-02T03:11:16Z" level=warning msg="invalid non-bool value for BUILDX_NO_DEFAULT_LOAD: "
#2 [internal] load .dockerignore
#2 transferring context: 77B 0.0s done
#2 DONE 0.0s

#1 [internal] load build definition from Dockerfile
#1 transferring dockerfile: 2B 0.0s done
#1 DONE 0.0s
failed to solve: rpc error: code = Unknown desc = failed to solve with frontend dockerfile.v0: failed to read dockerfile: open /tmp/buildkit-mount934169700/Dockerfile: no such file or directory
Error: The process '/usr/bin/docker' failed with exit code 1

I have verified that our ./path/to/context does contain Dockerfile - not sure where else to look.
Thanks!

[dinvlad]

OK, so our mistake was that file: is not relative to context:! We have to specify it like this:

- uses: docker/build-push-action@v2
  with:
    context: ./path/to/context
    file: ./path/to/context/Dockerfile
    tags: docker/image/name:latest

It would be nice to document it more explicitly :)

[guumaster]

We have this same issue in our workflow. And I think the documentation is not entirely clear. If you have to specify a context path, be sure to add a step with the check out action.

# This Checkout is necessary when using a context in docker/build-push-action
- name: Checkout
  uses: actions/checkout@v2
....
- uses: docker/build-push-action@v2
  with:
    context: ./path/to/context
    file: ./path/to/context/Dockerfile
    tags: docker/image/name:latest

[crazy-max]

@guumaster See #189

[guumaster]

@crazy-max thanks. but I think is not the same issue.

No matter what you put on file: (the default works ok), if you add a context: path, you need to also add the code checkout action explicitly too. Otherwise, it will complain with the error unable to prepare context: ... folder not found error.

[crazy-max]

@guumaster

thanks. but I think is not the same issue.

Sorry that's this one: #120 (comment). See also Git context and Path context.

[guumaster]

@crazy-max that's the one. And you are rigth that it is in the docs, but it seems clear once you already had the issue.

Is it a good idea to add this info in the TROUBLESHOOTING.md section? I can make a PR with it.

[crazy-max]

@guumaster Sure feel free to open a PR.

[vot4anto]

@crazy-max thanks. but I think is not the same issue.

No matter what you put on file: (the default works ok), if you add a context: path, you need to also add the code checkout action explicitly too. Otherwise, it will complain with the error unable to prepare context: ... folder not found error.

@guumaster thanks to your suggestion I finally go out from a nightmare buildx on github action