Can't run Curl command inside my Docker Container

Question

I created a docker container from my OS X VM Docker host. I created it using the run command and created the container based off the ubuntu:xenial image off docker hub.

I'm now connected to my container after it's created and logged in as root and at the command prompt inside my container.

I tried to install homebrew and for some reason, I can't run the command to install Homebrew:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

when I run that I get a bash:

curl: command not found

Not sure why I'm not able to use curl here inside my container.

Why not just install curl from zip ? Is curl anywhere on your disk ? — Marged, Jan 02 '16 at 23:18
based on Ubuntu image you can use apt-get install curl -y. RUN apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y && apt-get install curl -y CMD /bin/bash — ali Falahati, Jul 22 '20 at 13:37

Gilles Quénot · Accepted Answer · 2023-01-11T07:34:20.577

298

curl: command not found

is a big hint, you have to install it with :

apt-get -y update; apt-get -y install curl

edited Jan 11 '23 at 07:34

answered Jan 02 '16 at 23:22

Gilles Quénot

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Hi, why would I want to use sudo? The container does not know sudo anyway..Nirojan's answer works – Jan Sila Oct 30 '17 at 09:57
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I think you have to remove the sudo for this to work in docker – jorfus Dec 05 '17 at 19:27
u've assumed that it will be a debian image. right answer in this case , but what about smaller unix images, any help ? – saurshaz Mar 01 '18 at 12:38
I dunno what you mean by smaller image. If it's debian based, it should just works – Gilles Quénot Mar 01 '18 at 13:22
Needed this one. – Muhammad Haseeb Aug 27 '20 at 06:24
/bin/sh: apt-get: not found What now? – mahboudz Oct 26 '21 at 18:20
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@mahboudz it means that the image you are using has another package manager. Which image are you using? Other common ones are yum and dnf, i.e. you may want to try `yum install curl` or `dnf install curl` – ciurlaro Nov 16 '21 at 16:32
I have this in my docker file, I can see curl being installed when I build my docker file, yet I still get "curl: command not found" – CodeVomit Nov 30 '21 at 11:12
7

In my case, the solution was slightly different: `apk update; apk add curl` – Fernando F Feb 20 '22 at 03:30
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Not working if you don't specify "-y" : `apt-get install curl -y` – Doctor Mar 18 '22 at 12:31
@FernandoF That is not a Debian based Linux but Busybox, so this is not just one character difference between `apt` and `apk`. – karatedog Jun 07 '22 at 09:04
apt-get: not found – Alexey Sh. Dec 01 '22 at 01:03
While using `FROM node:alpine` I solved this by switching `apt-get` to `apk` just like [@Fernando F](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1274342/fernando-f) suggested. – treckstar Jan 10 '23 at 00:45

Nirojan Selvanathan · Answer 2 · 2019-07-12T07:20:04.570

69

Ran into this same issue while using the CURL command inside my Dockerfile. As Gilles pointed out, we have to install curl first. These are the commands to be added in the 'Dockerfile'.

FROM ubuntu:16.04

# Install prerequisites
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
curl
CMD /bin/bash

edited Jul 12 '19 at 07:20

answered Mar 06 '17 at 02:13

Nirojan Selvanathan

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Installing `curl` but if you are in control of the command using `curl`, realize that `wget` may be pre-installed in the container already, so if you rewrite the `curl` syntax to use `wget` instead, the result could be a smaller container image. – Mark Stosberg Feb 04 '22 at 19:27
This generates an error: `E: List directory /var/lib/apt/lists/partial is missing. - Acquire (13: Permission denied)` – KansaiRobot Sep 11 '22 at 13:58

granadaCoder · Answer 3 · 2020-11-18T16:51:14.777

So I added curl AFTER my docker container was running.

(This was for debugging the container...I did not need a permanent addition)

I ran my image

docker run -d -p 8899:8080 my-image:latest

(the above makes my "app" available on my machine on port 8899) (not important to this question)

Then I listed and created terminal into the running container.

docker ps
docker exec -it my-container-id-here /bin/sh

If the exec command above does not work, check this SOF article:

Error: Cannot Start Container: stat /bin/sh: no such file or directory"

then I ran:

apk

just to prove it existed in the running container, then i ran:

apk add curl

and got the below:

apk add curl

fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.8/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.8/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

(1/5) Installing ca-certificates (20171114-r3)

(2/5) Installing nghttp2-libs (1.32.0-r0)

(3/5) Installing libssh2 (1.8.0-r3)

(4/5) Installing libcurl (7.61.1-r1)

(5/5) Installing curl (7.61.1-r1)

Executing busybox-1.28.4-r2.trigger

Executing ca-certificates-20171114-r3.trigger

OK: 18 MiB in 35 packages

then i ran curl:

/ # curl
curl: try 'curl --help' or 'curl --manual' for more information
/ #

Note, to get "out" of the drilled-in-terminal-window, I had to open a new terminal window and stop the running container:

docker ps
docker stop my-container-id-here

APPEND:

If you don't have "apk" (which depends on which base image you are using), then try to use "another" installer. From other answers here, you can try:

apt-get -qq update

apt-get -qq -y install curl

Thanks for the step by step explanation! – Fred Jun 11 '21 at 05:58 — Fred, Jun 11 '21 at 05:58

Ahmad Awais · Answer 4 · 2020-01-16T08:30:34.573

This is happening because there is no package cache in the image, you need to run:

apt-get -qq update

before installing packages, and if your command is in a Dockerfile, you'll then need:

apt-get -qq -y install curl

After that install ZSH and GIT Core:

apt-get install zsh
apt-get install git-core

Getting zsh to work in ubuntu is weird since sh does not understand the source command. So, you do this to install zsh:

wget https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/raw/master/tools/install.sh -O - | zsh

and then you change your shell to zsh:

chsh -s `which zsh`

and then restart:

sudo shutdown -r 0

This problem is explained in depth in this issue.

Installing zsh is not relevant to the solution. – nonameable Jul 18 '19 at 13:37 — nonameable, Jul 18 '19 at 13:37

hannes ach · Answer 5 · 2023-02-22T20:16:11.180

17

If you are using an Alpine based image, you should do

RUN
... \
apk add --no-cache curl \
curl ...
...

edited Feb 22 '23 at 20:16

answered May 12 '19 at 04:47

hannes ach

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Why `--no-cache`? – MarSoft Jun 16 '19 at 00:08
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Hm, understood: we don't want cached package file to be left in our image. Nice touch. – MarSoft Jun 16 '19 at 00:08

kenorb · Answer 6 · 2020-08-05T16:56:45.883

13

You don't need to install curl to download the file into Docker container, use ADD command, e.g.

ADD https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install /tmp
RUN ruby -e /tmp/install

^{Note: Add above lines to your Dockerfile file.}

Another example which installs Azure CLI:

ADD https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb /tmp
RUN bash /tmp/InstallAzureCLIDeb

edited Aug 05 '20 at 16:56

answered Aug 05 '20 at 16:52

kenorb

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less time consuming compared to the accepted answer. Just one question though. Does ADD command download the file locally and then adds the file to the image or the download happens within the image? – Raja Anbazhagan Aug 05 '20 at 16:56
@RajaAnbazhagan It's downloaded during `docker build` process of your `Dockerfile` (which runs on your host). Since it's built directly by Docker process, I assume it's downloading the file directly to your image. – kenorb Aug 05 '20 at 16:58
Cool answer, thanks a lot! One more question: should I remove this file later in Dockerfile? – pseusys Feb 06 '23 at 23:59

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 11 '22 at 14:05

2

what worked successfully for me was:

FROM ubuntu:20.0.4

RUN apt-get update &&\
   apt-get install -y curl
...

answered Oct 11 '22 at 14:05

Mr Coolman

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 20 '22 at 11:52

1

You could base your image on one that already has curl.

A minimalistic one:

FROM alpine/curl

or a full-fledged one:

FROM rockylinux:9

answered Oct 20 '22 at 11:52

Marcus

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Can't run Curl command inside my Docker Container

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