Docker: unable to prepare context: unable to evalu

Question

I just downloaded Docker Toolbox for Windows 10 64bit today. I'm going through the tutorial. I'm receving the following error when trying to build an image using a Dockerfile.

Steps:

• Launched Docker Quickstart terminal.
• testdocker after creating it.
• Prepare Dockerfile as documented in "Build your own image" web link
• ran "docker build -t docker-whale ."

Error: $ docker build -t docker-whale . unable to prepare context: unable to evaluate symlinks in Dockerfile path: GetFileAttributesEx C:\Users\Villanueva\Test\testdocker\Dockerfile: The system cannot find the file specified.

BTW: I tried several options mentioned @ https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/14339

    $ docker info
    Containers: 4
     Running: 0
     Paused: 0
     Stopped: 4
    Images: 2
    Server Version: 1.10.1
    Storage Driver: aufs
     Root Dir: /mnt/sda1/var/lib/docker/aufs
     Backing Filesystem: extfs
     Dirs: 20
     Dirperm1 Supported: true
    Execution Driver: native-0.2
    Logging Driver: json-file
    Plugins:
     Volume: local
     Network: bridge null host
    Kernel Version: 4.1.17-boot2docker
    Operating System: Boot2Docker 1.10.1 (TCL 6.4.1); master : b03e158 - Thu Feb 11 22:34:01 UTC 2016
    OSType: linux
    Architecture: x86_64
    CPUs: 1
    Total Memory: 996.2 MiB
    Name: default
    ID: C7DS:CIAJ:FTSN:PCGD:ZW25:MQNG:H3HK:KRJL:G6FC:VPRW:SEWW:KP7B
    Debug mode (server): true
     File Descriptors: 32
     Goroutines: 44
     System Time: 2016-02-19T17:37:37.706076803Z
     EventsListeners: 0
     Init SHA1:
     Init Path: /usr/local/bin/docker
     Docker Root Dir: /mnt/sda1/var/lib/docker
    Labels:
     provider=virtualbox

Answer 1

while executing following command:

"docker build -t docker-whale ."

check that Dockerfile is present in your current working directory.

Answer 2

I tried this and it worked:

$ docker build -t test_dotnet_image 
"C:\Users\ssundarababu\Documents\Docker\Learn\SimpleDockerfile"

Please see quotes+un-quotes around the foldername.

Note: In Folder "C:\Users\ssundarababu\Documents\Docker\Learn\SimpleDockerfile" I have my Dockerfile.

Answer 3

I had named my file dockerfile instead of Dockerfile (capitalized), and once I changed that, it started processing my "Dockerfile".

Answer 4

On Mac it works for below command. (hope your .Dockerfile is in your root directory).

docker build -t docker-whale -f .Dockerfile .

Answer 5

Just Remove the extension .txt from Dockerfile and run the command

docker build -t image-name 

It will work for sure.

Answer 6

In WSL, there seems to be a problem with path conversion. The location of the Dockerfile in Ubuntu (where I'm running docker and where Dockerfile lives) is "/home/sxw455/App1", but neither of these commands worked:

$ pwd
/home/sxw455/App1
$ ll
total 4
drwxrwxrwx 0 sxw455 sxw455 4096 Dec 11 19:28 ./
drwxr-xr-x 0 sxw455 sxw455 4096 Dec 11 19:25 ../
-rwxrwxrwx 1 sxw455 sxw455  531 Dec 11 19:26 Dockerfile*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 sxw455 sxw455  666 Dec 11 19:28 app.py*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 sxw455 sxw455   12 Dec 11 19:27 requirements.txt*

$ docker build -t friendlyhello .
unable to prepare context: unable to evaluate symlinks in Dockerfile path: GetFileAttributesEx C:\Windows\System32\Dockerfile: The system cannot find the file specified.

$ docker build -t friendlyhello "/home/sxw455/App1"
unable to prepare context: path "/home/sxw455/App1" not found

But in Windows, the actual path is:

C:\Users\sxw455\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState\rootfs\home\sxw455\App1

And so I had to do this (even though I ran it from bash):

$ docker build -t friendlyhello 
"C:\Users\sxw455\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState\rootfs\home\sxw455\App1"

Sending build context to Docker daemon   5.12kB
Step 1/7 : FROM python:2.7-slim
 ---> 0dc3d8d47241
Step 2/7 : WORKDIR /app
 ---> Using cache
 ---> f739aa02ce04
Step 3/7 : COPY . /app
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 88686c524ae9
Step 4/7 : RUN pip install --trusted-host pypi.python.org -r requirements.txt
 ---> Using cache
 ---> b95f02b14f78
Step 5/7 : EXPOSE 80
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 0924dbc3f695
Step 6/7 : ENV NAME World
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 85c145785b87
Step 7/7 : CMD ["python", "app.py"]
 ---> Using cache
 ---> c2e43b7f0d4a
Successfully built c2e43b7f0d4a
Successfully tagged friendlyhello:latest
SECURITY WARNING: You are building a Docker image from Windows against a non-Windows Docker host. All files and directories added to build context will have '-rwxr-xr-x' permissions. It is recommended to double check and reset permissions for sensitive files and directories.

I had similar problems with environment variables during the initial installation, and followed some advice that said to install the Windows DockerCE and hack the environment variables rather than installing the Ubuntu DockerCE, because (I hope I remembered this correctly) that WSL does not fully implement systemctl. Once the Windows Docker CE installation is done and environment variables are set, docker then works fine under WSL/Ubuntu.