Yarn: Couldn't install yarn in Unbuntu based docker image

[ganlanyuan]

Do you want to request a feature or report a bug?
bug

What is the current behavior?
Got the following error when trying to install yarn in unbuntu image:

The command '/bin/sh -c apt-get update && apt-get install yarn' returned a non-zero code: 1

If the current behavior is a bug, please provide the steps to reproduce.
Dockerfile:

FROM phusion/baseimage:0.9.22

USER root 

# Install yarn
RUN curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | apt-key add -
RUN echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install yarn
RUN yarn --version

Error output:

Sending build context to Docker daemon  27.06MB
Step 1/18 : FROM phusion/baseimage:0.9.22
 ---> 877509368a8d
Step 2/18 : MAINTAINER William Lin <[email protected]>
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 1d36be40f2bc
Step 3/18 : USER root
 ---> Using cache
 ---> d27c57c3238c
Step 4/18 : RUN curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | apt-key add -
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 29d273829c5f
Step 5/18 : RUN echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 38974f74094a
Step 6/18 : RUN apt-get update && apt-get install yarn
 ---> Running in 7310256d6b4b
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease [247 kB]
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease [102 kB]
Get:3 https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian stable InRelease [11.5 kB]
Get:4 https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian stable/main amd64 Packages [6,428 B]
Get:5 https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian stable/main all Packages [6,428 B]
Get:6 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main Sources [121 kB]
Get:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease [102 kB]
Get:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease [102 kB]
Get:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main Sources [1,103 kB]
Get:10 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/restricted Sources [2,770 B]
Get:11 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/universe Sources [50.7 kB]
Get:12 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/multiverse Sources [1,077 B]
Get:13 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages [476 kB]
Get:14 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/restricted amd64 Packages [12.9 kB]
Get:15 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/universe amd64 Packages [220 kB]
Get:16 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/multiverse amd64 Packages [3,485 B]
Get:17 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/restricted Sources [5,179 B]
Get:18 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe Sources [9,802 kB]
Get:19 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/multiverse Sources [215 kB]
Get:20 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages [1,558 kB]
Get:21 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/restricted amd64 Packages [14.1 kB]
Get:22 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 Packages [9,827 kB]
Get:23 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/multiverse amd64 Packages [176 kB]
Get:24 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main Sources [352 kB]
Get:25 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/restricted Sources [3,617 B]
Get:26 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/universe Sources [221 kB]
Get:27 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/multiverse Sources [7,677 B]
Get:28 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages [833 kB]
Get:29 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/restricted amd64 Packages [13.7 kB]
Get:30 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/universe amd64 Packages [692 kB]
Get:31 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/multiverse amd64 Packages [18.1 kB]
Get:32 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports/main Sources [3,506 B]
Get:33 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports/universe Sources [4,586 B]
Get:34 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports/main amd64 Packages [5,176 B]
Get:35 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports/universe amd64 Packages [6,354 B]
Fetched 26.3 MB in 4s (5,883 kB/s)
Reading package lists...
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libicu55 libuv1 nodejs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libicu55 libuv1 nodejs yarn
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 56 not upgraded.
Need to get 11.5 MB of archives.
After this operation, 48.3 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Abort.
The command '/bin/sh -c apt-get update && apt-get install yarn' returned a non-zero code: 1

What is the expected behavior?

Please mention your node.js, yarn and operating system version.
I'm using this image which is based on ubuntu:16.04.

[edmorley]

Hi!

The error quoted isn't actually the root cause of the problem. When seeing a message about a non-zero exit code, it's best to read further back in the log to try and spot the reason for it.

In this case there is:
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Abort.

Googling that gives:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/509852/why-does-apt-get-abort-by-itself-as-though-id-pressed-n

ie: This isn't a problem with yarn.

apt-get was prompting the user for a yes/no answer, but since the commands in a Dockerfile are run non-interactively, it aborts since it's not going to receive one. Instead apt-get needs to be told not to ask for confirmation (the same as if it were being run from any regular unattended bash script) using apt-get install -y. See man apt-get for more information.

I'd also recommend reading:
https://docs.docker.com/engine/userguide/eng-image/dockerfile_best-practices/

...since I can see a few other problems with the Dockerfile above.

[ganlanyuan]

Thanks for the quick reply.
Problem solved!