Install curl, vim (vi), wget, nano, bash on Alpine Docker Container

If you can’t run curl, vi, nano, bash, wget and similar commands inside an Alpine Docker container, it is very likely that those packages are not pre-installed to your image when it is being built.

In such cases, you can simply run below commands to install necessary packages to your Alpine Docker container.

// Determine Docker container name and get shell access to it
$ docker ps
$ docker exec -it <container_name> sh

// Update your current package list
$ apk update

// Install curl 
$ apk add curl
$ curl --version

// Install wget
$ apk add wget
$ wget --version

// Install vim 
$ apk add vim
$ vi --version

// Install nano
$ apk add nano
$ nano --version

// install bash and switch current shell to bash
$ apk add bash
$ bash --version
$ bash

// Add any other package
$ apk add <package_name>

// Search more packages
$ apk search -v 'node'

Add packages to Dockerfile

In case if you need these packages frequently, adding them to Dockerfile will help you pre-install all of them when the Docker image is being built.

RUN apk add --no-cache <package_name>

A sample Dockerfile for a Node.js application with such package installation is mentioned below.

$ vi Dockerfile

FROM node:10-alpine

RUN apk update && apk add --no-cache curl vim wget bash

RUN mkdir -p /src/app
WORKDIR /src/app

COPY package.json /src/app/package.json
RUN npm install
COPY . /src/app

EXPOSE 3000
CMD [ "npm", "start" ]

Now you can access your container with bash shell and use the above-installed packages straightaway.

$ docker ps
$ docker exec -it <container_name> bash

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👉 Any questions? Please comment below.

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