[docker] Docker: adding a file from a parent directory

In my Dockerfile I've got :

ADD ../../myapp.war /opt/tomcat7/webapps/

That file exists as ls ../../myapp.war returns me the correct file but when I execute sudo docker build -t myapp . I've got :

Step 1 : ADD ../../myapp.war /opt/tomcat7/webapps/
2014/07/02 19:18:09 ../../myapp.war: no such file or directory

Does somebody know why and how to do it correctly?

This question is related to docker

The answer is


Adding some code snippets to support the accepted answer.

Directory structure :

setup/
 |__docker/DockerFile
 |__target/scripts/<myscripts.sh>
src/
 |__<my source files>

Docker file entry:

RUN mkdir -p /home/vagrant/dockerws/chatServerInstaller/scripts/
RUN mkdir -p /home/vagrant/dockerws/chatServerInstaller/src/
WORKDIR /home/vagrant/dockerws/chatServerInstaller

#Copy all the required files from host's file system to the container file system.
COPY setup/target/scripts/install_x.sh scripts/
COPY setup/target/scripts/install_y.sh scripts/
COPY src/ src/

Command used to build the docker image

docker build -t test:latest -f setup/docker/Dockerfile .

Since -f caused another problem, I developed another solution.

  • Create a base image in the parent folder
  • Added the required files.
  • Used this image as a base image for the project which in a descendant folder.

The -f flag does not solved my problem because my onbuild image looks for a file in a folder and had to call like this:

-f foo/bar/Dockerfile foo/bar

instead of

-f foo/bar/Dockerfile .

Also note that this is only solution for some cases as -f flag


The solution for those who use composer is to use a volume pointing to the parent folder:

#docker-composer.yml

foo:
  build: foo
  volumes:
    - ./:/src/:ro

But I'm pretty sure the can be done playing with volumes in Dockerfile.


If you are using skaffold, use 'context:' to specify context location for each image dockerfile - context: ../../../

            apiVersion: skaffold/v2beta4
            kind: Config
            metadata:
                name: frontend
            build:
                artifacts:
                    - image: nginx-angular-ui
                      context: ../../../
                      sync:
                          # A local build will update dist and sync it to the container
                          manual:
                              - src: './dist/apps'
                                dest: '/usr/share/nginx/html'
                      docker:
                          dockerfile: ./tools/pipelines/dockerfile/nginx.dev.dockerfile
                    - image: webapi/image
                      context: ../../../../api/
                      docker:
                          dockerfile: ./dockerfile
            deploy:
                kubectl:
                    manifests:
                        - ./.k8s/*.yml

skaffold run -f ./skaffold.yaml


Unfortunately, (for practical and security reasons I guess), if you want to add/copy local content, it must be located under the same root path than the Dockerfile.

From the documentation:

The <src> path must be inside the context of the build; you cannot ADD ../something/something, because the first step of a docker build is to send the context directory (and subdirectories) to the docker daemon.

EDIT: There's now an option (-f) to set the path of your Dockerfile ; it can be used to achieve what you want, see @Boedy 's response.


With docker-compose, you could set context folder:

#docker-compose.yml
version: '3.3'    
services:
      yourservice:
        build:
          context: ./
          dockerfile: ./docker/yourservice/Dockerfile