The error “base64: unrecognized option: w” is output in alpine linux

Question

The following error was output when executing codecept -c src run acceptance command on alpine linux:

none base64: unrecognized option: w BusyBox v1.30.1 (2019-06-12 17:51:55 UTC) multi-call binary.

Usage: base64 [-d] [FILE]

Base64 encode or decode FILE to standard output -d Decode data

I can't see the command being executed by codecept.

I tried to add base64 in apk but base64 did not exist.

Dockerfile:

FROM node:10-alpine AS node
FROM php:7.1-fpm-alpine

ENV GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN test
ENV COMPOSER_ASSET_VERSION 1.3.1
ENV DOCKERIZE_VERSION v0.6.1
ENV PATH=~/.composer/vendor/bin:$PATH

# install packages
RUN apk add -U --no-cache \
        curl-dev \
        libxml2-dev \
        libpng-dev \
        libjpeg-turbo-dev \
        zip \
        libzip-dev \
        unzip \
        gmp-dev \
        python \
        make \
        autoconf \
        memcached-dev \
        libmemcached-dev \
        libmcrypt-dev \
        icu-dev \
        g++

RUN pecl install xdebug \
                 memcached

# install PHP extensions
RUN docker-php-source extract \
    && cp /usr/src/php/ext/openssl/config0.m4 /usr/src/php/ext/openssl/config.m4
RUN docker-php-ext-configure gd --with-png-dir=/usr/include --with-jpeg-dir=/usr/include \
    && docker-php-ext-configure soap --enable-soap
RUN docker-php-ext-install \
    pdo \
    pdo_mysql \
    mysqli \
    mbstring \
    mcrypt \
    xml \
    intl \
    opcache \
    gd \
    soap \
    zip \
    && docker-php-ext-enable xdebug \
                             memcached

# install composer
RUN curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php \
    && mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

# install composer plugin
RUN composer global require hirak/prestissimo \
    && composer config --global github-oauth.github.com $GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN \
    && composer config -g repos.packagist composer https://packagist.jp \
    && composer global require fxp/composer-asset-plugin:^$COMPOSER_ASSET_VERSION

# install dockerize
#RUN wget https://github.com/jwilder/dockerize/releases/download/$DOCKERIZE_VERSION/dockerize-alpine-linux-amd64-$DOCKERIZE_VERSION.tar.gz \
    #    && tar -C /usr/local/bin -xzvf dockerize-alpine-linux-amd64-$DOCKERIZE_VERSION.tar.gz \
    #&& rm dockerize-alpine-linux-amd64-$DOCKERIZE_VERSION.tar.gz

# add node.js npm
COPY --from=node /usr/local /usr/local

RUN mkdir -p /project/test

WORKDIR /project/test

CMD ["php-fpm"]

#RUN rm /usr/local/bin/yarn /usr/local/bin/yarnpkg

Are you sure that you get that error from `codecept run`? It looks like an output of shell command. — Naktibalda, Sep 13 '19 at 09:44

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 13 '19 at 09:46

The alpine images seem to have a version of base64 which doesn't provide the -w option:

docker container run -it --rm alpine:3.9 base64 --help
BusyBox v1.29.3 (2019-01-24 07:45:07 UTC) multi-call binary.

Usage: base64 [-d] [FILE]

Base64 encode or decode FILE to standard output
    -d  Decode data

but if you execute apk add --update coreutils it's there:

docker container run -it --rm alpine:3.9
/ # apk add --update coreutils
fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.9/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.9/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
(1/3) Installing libattr (2.4.47-r7)
(2/3) Installing libacl (2.2.52-r5)
(3/3) Installing coreutils (8.30-r0)
Executing busybox-1.29.3-r10.trigger
OK: 7 MiB in 17 packages
/ # base64 --help
Usage: base64 [OPTION]... [FILE]
Base64 encode or decode FILE, or standard input, to standard output.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
  -d, --decode          decode data
  -i, --ignore-garbage  when decoding, ignore non-alphabet characters
  -w, --wrap=COLS       wrap encoded lines after COLS character (default 76).
                          Use 0 to disable line wrapping

      --help     display this help and exit
      --version  output version information and exit

The data are encoded as described for the base64 alphabet in RFC 4648.
When decoding, the input may contain newlines in addition to the bytes of
the formal base64 alphabet.  Use --ignore-garbage to attempt to recover
from any other non-alphabet bytes in the encoded stream.

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report base64 translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
Full documentation at: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/base64>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) base64 invocation'

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 13 '19 at 10:45

If you're going to install a full C++ toolchain, and also Python, and also several C libraries' development files, all on top of a PHP base image, you will wind up with a fairly large image. (And if you go with @tgogos's answer and install a duplicate copy of core Linux system tools, even bigger.)

The space savings you're getting from an Alpine vs. Debian base image are pretty minimal compared to this giant pile of stuff you're installing. If you change this to an Debian base then you'll have all of the extensions the GNU versions of these tools make available. (You'll also have to change apk add to apt-get install and find the corresponding Ubuntu package names, but in most cases these are pretty similar.) I'd suggest changing:

FROM php:7.1-fpm # not -alpine

The error “base64: unrecognized option: w” is output in alpine linux

2 Answers2