How to install poetry inside a docker container ?

[aahnik]

I read this #1879 (comment) , but it seems too complex, for a beginner like me.

I tried, running

$ curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/python-poetry/poetry/master/get-poetry.py | python -

and this works perfectly in my machine (ubuntu) as well and docker containers running linux.

But the thing is that, the above command requires to run source $HOME/.poetry/env to access the poetry command.

For example:

I create a Dockerfile:

FROM python:3.9

WORKDIR /app

RUN apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

RUN curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/python-poetry/poetry/master/get-poetry.py | python -

RUN bash -c "source $HOME/.poetry/env"

# RUN poetry --help # will be successful

# RUN poetry install # will succeed

CMD ["bash"]

Now I build the image:

$ docker build --tag poetry-docker .

Now, I run it in interactive mode:

$ docker run -it poetry-docker
root@bb4c99c703e4:/app# poetry --version
bash: poetry: command not found
root@bb4c99c703e4:/app# source $HOME/.poetry/env
root@bb4c99c703e4:/app# poetry --version
Poetry version 1.1.5

If I stop the container, and start again, I again need to run the source command, to be able to use poetry command.

---

My questions:

• is the Dockerfile I made, safe to use for real applications?
• why do I need to source $HOME/.poetry/env every time? How to add poetry to the path, once and for all?

basically, i want to publish my poetry-docker image to Dockerhub, and want to use it in my future projects like this:

FROM aahnik/poetry-docker

RUN poetry --help # should succeed

...

---

Update: Here https://python-poetry.org/docs/ get-poetry.py is used. But in README, it says deprecated?

is my problem related to that ?

[aahnik]

I changed my Dockerfile (see original above) to this, and it solves my issue of " How to add poetry to the path, once and for all?". But I am curious to know if my Dockerfile is all correct and safe for production.

-RUN curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/python-poetry/poetry/master/get-poetry.py | python -
+RUN curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/python-poetry/poetry/master/install-poetry.py | python -
 
-RUN bash -c "source $HOME/.poetry/env"
+ENV PATH /root/.local/bin:$PATH

[abn]

For completeness, you can also the export is done via /etc/profile.d/local-bin.sh or something. Not necessarily required in most cases.

[abn]

However, the /root/.local/bin dir should alredy be present in the shell path.

[abn]

• is the Dockerfile I made, safe to use for real applications?

There is nothing obvious that is wrong here. Maybe cleanup after your apt-get upgrade.

• why do I need to source $HOME/.poetry/env every time? How to add poetry to the path, once and for all?

This is because source <file> only applies to the current shell, and each RUN executes in a new shell. To make it permanent, you can add the command to /etc/profile.d/poetry.sh and also add bash completions if you so desired to /etc/bash_completion.d/poetry.

Update: Here https://python-poetry.org/docs/ get-poetry.py is used. But in README, it says deprecated?

The live docs are related to the current stable version. The documentation on master refers to the latest in-development doc. With 1.2.0, the install-poetry.py script will become the recommendation. Note that if you use install-poetry today, it will install 1.1.6, this version is not aware of the new installation mechanism and hence if you try poetry self update it will fail (this is the only draw back).

In a container you can also use python -m pip install poetry. The side-effect here is that poetry gets installed in the system-stite, re-using any existing dependencies. In this case, make sure that you do not use the system-site for project as well (ie. use a virtual envrionment for your project - always a good practice), as this may cause other issues.

[aahnik]

thanks a lot. now i understand that pip install poetry is completely safe, if I don't have other packages at system level.

pip install poetry is good to go for github actions and docker containers, if I run my application inside virtual environment, (which poetry does by default.)

thank you for such detailed explanation, 🙏

[rashid200gb]

Bundle of thanks for valuable information.