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Rob Bos
Rob Bos

Posted on • Originally published at devopsjournal.io on

GitHub Actions Create: Dockerfile symlinks error

I was building a new GitHub Action today with a Dockerfile and got a strange error… `unable to prepare context: path “/action” not found.

GitHub execution error message

I was using a Dockerfile in a sub directory, but the documentation indicates this is supported. So, what gives? Is it a mix-up of the file path? I’m testing it on Windows and can build the Dockerfile itself just fine 🤔. Tested with a backslash instead of a slash, but still an error:

unable to prepare context: unable to evaluate symlinks in Dockerfile path: lstat /path/to/Dockerfile

GitHub execution error message with symlinks

The fix

On a hunch (this has happened before!), I changed the file ending of the Dockerfile from CRLF into LF (created the file on Windows of-course!) and… 🎉.

Working result with a successful Docker build

For future reference

  1. Check the line endings on your Dockerfile!
  2. You can run an image in your GitHub Action in a subdirectory by using the correct path to it. It needs to be relative to the action.yml file!

`

action.yml

name: 'Octogotchi'
description: 'Octogotchi'
branding:
icon : alert-circle
color: blue
runs:
using: 'docker'
image: 'action/Dockerfile'

`

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