Github action error with Set up QEMU - Error: Unable to locate executable file: docker

Question

I'm building a workflow to test, build a docker image and push it to GitHub private repository.

I used to run the action on ububntu-latest and use a specific PHP version and some environment builds but there were some problems due to the fact that it's not identical to the production build.

I wanted to use the same environment as production so I have used a container that utilizes php7.3 and I called that after running the action on ubuntu-latest

The issue I'm facing now is after a successful composer update I can't call the default step tp build docker image. I get this error on "Set up QEMU" step

Error: Unable to locate executable file: docker. Please verify either the file path exists or the file can be found within a directory specified by the PATH environment variable. Also check the file mode to verify the file is executable.

Here's my action

name: Build and Publish Docker for development

on:
  push:
    branches: development

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container:
      image: egahmad/php7.3-laravel-apache-development
#      volumes:
#        - app_files:/var/www/html/

    services:
      mysql:
        image: mysql:5.7
        env:
          MYSQL_DATABASE: db
          MYSQL_USER: user
          MYSQL_PASSWORD: secret
          MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
        ports:
          - 3306:3306
        options: --health-cmd="mysqladmin ping" --health-interval=10s --health-timeout=5s --health-retries=3

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Verify TNT MySQL connection
        run: |
          mysql --version
          sudo apt-get install -y default-mysql-client
          mysql --host mysql --port ${{ job.services.mysql.ports['3306'] }} -uuser -psecret -e "SHOW DATABASES"

      - name: Copy .env
        run: |
          php -r "file_exists('.env') || copy('.env.cicd', '.env');"

      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: composer install

      - name: Generate key
        run: php artisan key:generate

      - name: Directory Permissions
        run: chmod -R 777 storage bootstrap/cache

      - name: Execute tests (Unit and Feature tests) via PHPUnit
        env:
          MYSQL_DATABASE: db
          DB_USERNAME: user
          DB_PASSWORD: secret
          DB_PORT: ${{ job.services.mysql.ports[3306] }}
        run: vendor/bin/phpunit

      - name: Set up QEMU
        uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v1
      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v1
      - name: Login to GitHub Container Registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v1
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.repository_owner }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_SECRET }}
      - name: Build and push
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v2
        with:
          context: .
          file: ./Dockerfile
          push: true
          target: ci
          tags: ghcr.io/account/image:development
          build-args: |
            GITHUB_USER=${{ secrets.GITHUB_USERNAME }}
            GITHUB_PASSWORD=${{ secrets.CR_PAT }}
      - name: Image digest
        run: echo ${{ steps.docker_build.outputs.digest }}

Answer 1

The docker command is not available on egahmad/php7.3-laravel-apache-development, and I don't believe the qemu steps are designed to run within a container (they're making changes to the kernel). To run the qemu steps on the ubuntu-latest host, I believe you'd need to remove the container section. If steps require this environment, you can try breaking up the job into multiple jobs, with some steps running in the container, and others running directly on the host.

If you're going through all these steps in Github Actions because your docker build needs the binaries already created, I'd recommend migrating to a multi-stage build. The first stage would be your egahmad/php7.3-laravel-apache-development image, running the steps you currently perform in GHA, and then the second stage would copy from that first stage rather than the build context.