awscli version 2 on alpine linux

Question

I was trying to put awscli_v2 into an alpine-based docker container and see that it fails with the following error message:

/aws/install: line 78: /aws/dist/aws: not found

Considering that the file itself is there and can be listed with ls, I would guess that some libraries that the executable ./aws/dist/aws relies upon are not present on alpine. Does someone know which libraries that might be?

Answer 1

Actually with a bit a effort it is possible to run AWS CLI v2 on Alpine:

ARG ALPINE_VERSION=3.15.4

FROM alpine:${ALPINE_VERSION}

ARG GLIBC_VERSION=2.34-r0
ARG AWSCLI_VERSION=2.6.1

# install glibc compatibility for alpine
RUN apk --no-cache add \
        binutils \
        curl \
    && curl -sL https://alpine-pkgs.sgerrand.com/sgerrand.rsa.pub -o /etc/apk/keys/sgerrand.rsa.pub \
    && curl -sLO https://github.com/sgerrand/alpine-pkg-glibc/releases/download/${GLIBC_VERSION}/glibc-${GLIBC_VERSION}.apk \
    && curl -sLO https://github.com/sgerrand/alpine-pkg-glibc/releases/download/${GLIBC_VERSION}/glibc-bin-${GLIBC_VERSION}.apk \
    && curl -sLO https://github.com/sgerrand/alpine-pkg-glibc/releases/download/${GLIBC_VERSION}/glibc-i18n-${GLIBC_VERSION}.apk \
    && apk add --no-cache \
        glibc-${GLIBC_VERSION}.apk \
        glibc-bin-${GLIBC_VERSION}.apk \
        glibc-i18n-${GLIBC_VERSION}.apk \
    && /usr/glibc-compat/bin/localedef -i en_US -f UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8 \
    && curl -sL https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64-${AWSCLI_VERSION}.zip -o awscliv2.zip \
    && unzip awscliv2.zip \
    && aws/install \
    && rm -rf \
        awscliv2.zip \
        aws \
        /usr/local/aws-cli/v2/current/dist/aws_completer \
        /usr/local/aws-cli/v2/current/dist/awscli/data/ac.index \
        /usr/local/aws-cli/v2/current/dist/awscli/examples \
        glibc-*.apk \
    && find /usr/local/aws-cli/v2/current/dist/awscli/botocore/data -name examples-1.json -delete \
    && apk --no-cache del \
        binutils \
        curl \
    && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*

The above Dockerfile will install the 'glibc' package for Alpine, so that the AWS CLI will be able to find the required shared libraries. The Dockerfile also removes some stuff we probably don't need, such as auto-complete and examples. If you need some other specific packages you can of course add them to the Dockerfile.

Answer 2

AWS CLI version 2 is compiled against glibc, the GNU Project's implementation of the C standard library. Most common Linux distributions use glibc, but Alpine Linux is instead based on musl libc.

Because binaries compiled against glibc aren't compatible with musl, AWS CLI version 2 doesn't run on Alpine Linux.

The best way to run AWS CLI version 2 on Alpine Linux would be for Amazon to provide one of the following:

• Binaries compiled against musl
• A source distribution, which can be compiled on Alpine Linux
• An official AWS CLI Docker image based on Alpine Linux

Answer 3

Can also use https://git.adelielinux.org/adelie/gcompat

apk add gcompat

source: https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Running_glibc_programs

Edit sample:

ENV AWS_CLI_VER=2.0.30

RUN apk update && apk add --no-cache curl gcompat zip &&  \
    curl -s https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64-${AWS_CLI_VER}.zip -o awscliv2.zip && \
    unzip awscliv2.zip && ./aws/install

Answer 4

Modifying a bit AnthonyC's answer does the trick:

FROM frolvlad/alpine-glibc:alpine-3.14

ENV AWS_CLI_VER=2.2.43

RUN apk update && apk add --no-cache curl zip &&  \
    curl -s https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64-${AWS_CLI_VER}.zip -o awscliv2.zip && \
    unzip awscliv2.zip && ./aws/install