piped sh command causing docker build script to choke

Question

I've got this in a docker build file: RUN 'echo "y" | /usr/bin/task'

When building, this error is thrown:

 => ERROR [tool_config  9/11] RUN 'echo "y" | /usr/bin/task'                                                                             0.2s
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 > [tool_config  9/11] RUN 'echo "y" | /usr/bin/task':
#15 0.164 /bin/sh: echo "y" | /usr/bin/task: not found
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executor failed running [/bin/sh -c 'echo "y" | /usr/bin/task']: exit code: 127

The command runs fine when manually run from insside the container. The task command is definitely installed.

Without without quotes, RUN echo "y" | task gives:

 => ERROR [tool_config  9/11] RUN echo "y" | /usr/bin/task                                                                               0.2s
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 > [tool_config  9/11] RUN echo "y" | /usr/bin/task:
#15 0.176 A configuration file could not be found in /root
#15 0.176
#15 0.176 Would you like a sample /root/.taskrc created, so Taskwarrior can proceed? (yes/no) No matches.
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executor failed running [/bin/sh -c echo "y" | /usr/bin/task]: exit code: 1

I don't want to be that guy, but can you double-check again to ensure that `/usr/bin/task` exists in that specific build step (build step no. 9)? You can cross-reference with a command that should be guaranteed to work: `echo "y" | /usr/bin/base64` — Lee Kai Xuan, Dec 16 '22 at 02:04
The entire `RUN` command is in single quotes, which causes the shell to interpret it as a single shell word – the spaces and pipe are part of the filename it's looking for. Does deleting the outermost quotes help? — David Maze, Dec 16 '22 at 02:08
Tried that, but I'll update OP as the output is slightly different. — StevieD, Dec 16 '22 at 02:11
OK, I think I know what's happening. The `task` command is returning "no matches" because there are no tasks created yet which is showing as an error code causing docker to check. — StevieD, Dec 16 '22 at 02:28

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 16 '22 at 02:33

The problem was the task command was returning "No matches" because no tasks had yet been created so the command exited with an error code of 1 and docker choked.

Fix is simple as per https://stackoverflow.com/a/30717108/1641112:

RUN echo "y" | task; exit 0;

piped sh command causing docker build script to choke

1 Answers1