Error in building docker image with perl installation - docker

Question

I am new to docker and i am trying to build the docker image with the perl installation but not sure exactly how to fix this error.
Dockerfile:
FROM amazonlinux
RUN mkdir /shared
RUN cd /shared
RUN yum -y install sudo
RUN cd /shared
RUN echo "Installing Perl."
RUN sudo yum -y update; yum -y install gcc
RUN yum -y install wget
RUN wget http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/perl-5.22.1.tar.gz
RUN tar -xzf perl-5.22.1.tar.gz
RUN cd perl-5.22.1
RUN /shared/perl-5.22.1/Configure -des -Dprefix=/opt/perl-5.22.1/localperl
RUN make
RUN make test
RUN make install
RUN echo "Perl installation complete."
instead of /shared/perl-5.22.1/Configure i tried to give ./configure as well but i get the same error No such file or directory
Error:
/bin/sh: /shared/perl-5.22.1/Configure: No such file or directory
The command '/bin/sh -c /shared/perl-5.22.1/Configure -des -Dprefix=/opt/perl-5.22.1/localperl' returned a non-zero code: 127
ish-mac:testanalyse ish$
Can anyone tell me how to fix this issue.

Answer 1

Each Dockerfile RUN command runs in its own shell. So, when you do something like RUN cd /shared, the subsequent RUN commands will not be run inside that working directory.
What you want to use in this case is the WORKDIR instruction (https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#workdir). You can also combine and shorten some things by taking advantage of the ADD instruction. A more concise Dockerfile to do what you are after might be:
FROM amazonlinux
WORKDIR /shared
RUN yum -y install gcc
ADD http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/perl-5.22.1.tar.gz /shared
RUN tar -xzf perl-5.22.1.tar.gz
RUN /shared/perl-5.22.1/Configure -des -Dprefix=/opt/perl-5.22.1/localperl
RUN make -C /shared/perl-5.22.1
RUN make -C /shared/perl-5.22.1 test
RUN make -C /shared/perl-5.22.1 install
For example, the build context is already running as root so there is no need for sudo. With ADD we can add directly from URLs and no wget is required. And the make utility has a -C option to specify the working directory for make.
This should get you closer to what you are after. But the build still fails for other reasons (which you should probably open another question for if you are stuck).