OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: (...) executable file not found in $PATH": unknown

I have dockerized an app which has ffmpeg installed in it via libav-tools. The app launches without problem, yet the problem occured when fluent-ffmpeg npm module tried to execute ffmpeg command, which was not found. When I wanted to check the version of the ffmpeg and the linux distro set up in the image, I used sudo docker exec -it c44f29d30753 "lsb_release -a" command, but it gave the following error: OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: container_linux.go:296: starting container process caused "exec: \"lsb_release -a\": executable file not found in $PATH": unknown

Then I realized that it gives me the same error with all the commands that I try to run inside the image or the container.

OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: container_linux.go:296: starting container process caused "exec: \"ffmpeg -a\": executable file not found in $PATH": unknown

This is my Dockerfile:

FROM ubuntu:xenial
FROM node
RUN apt-get -y update
RUN apt-get --yes install libav-tools
RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY package.json /usr/src/app
RUN npm install
COPY . /usr/src/app
RUN npm run build
ENV NODE_ENV production
EXPOSE 8000
CMD ["npm", "run", "start:prod"]

I would kindly ask for your help. Thank you very much!

This happened to me on windows. Any of these commands will work

On Windows CMD (not switching to bash):

docker exec -it <container-id> /bin/sh

On Windows CMD (after switching to bash):

docker exec -it <container-id> //bin//sh

or

winpty docker exec -it <container-id> //bin//sh

On Git Bash:

winpty docker exec -it <container-id> //bin//sh

For Windows users, the reason is documented in the ReleaseNotes file of Git and it is well explained here - Bash in Git for Windows: Weirdness... :

> The cause is to do with trying to ensure that posix paths end up being > passed to the git utilities properly. For this reason, Git for Windows > includes a modified MSYS layer that affects command arguments.

Linux & Windows Users

You might need to run using /bin/bash or /bin/sh, depending on the shell in your container. Using shell instead of bash or vice versa will also give you this error.

docker exec -it <containerId> sh

I had this due to a simple ordering mistake on my end. I called

When I should have used

Same resolution on similar question: https://stackoverflow.com/a/50762266/6278

If @papigee does solution doesn't work, maybe you don't have the permissions.

I tried @papigee solution but does't work without sudo.

I did :

sudo docker exec -it <container id or name> /bin/sh

Get rid of your quotes around your command. When you quote it, docker tries to run the full string "lsb_release -a" as a command, which doesn't exist. Instead, you want to run the command lsb_release with an argument -a, and no quotes.

sudo docker exec -it c44f29d30753 lsb_release -a

Note, everything after the container name is the command and arguments to run inside the container, docker will not process any of that as options to the docker command.

---

For others with this error, the debugging steps I'd recommend:

• Verify the order of your arguments. Everything after the container name/id is a command to run. So you don't want docker exec $cid -it /bin/sh because that will try to run the command -it in the $cid container. Instead you want docker exec -it $cid /bin/sh

• Look at the command that is failing, everything in the quotes after the exec error (e.g. lsb_release -a in "exec: \"lsb_release -a\") is the binary trying to be run. Make sure that binary exists in your image. E.g. if you are using alpine or busybox, bash may not exist, but /bin/sh does. And that binary is the full string, e.g. you would be able to run something like ls "/usr/bin/lsb_release -a" and see a file with the space and -a in the filename.

• If you're using Windows with Git bash and see a long path prefixed on that command trying to be run, that's Git bash trying to do some automatic conversions of /path/to/binary, you can disable that by doubling the first slash, e.g. //bin/sh.

• If the command you're running is a script in the container, check the first line of that script, containing the #!/path/to/interpreter, make sure that interpreter exists in the image, at that path, and that the script is saved with linux linefeeds (lf, not cr+lf, you won't want the \r showing in the file when read in linux because that becomes part of the command it's looking to execute).

• If you don't have a full path to the binary in the command you're running, check the value of $PATH in the image, and verify the binary exists within one of those directories. E.g. you can docker exec -it $cid /bin/sh and echo $PATH and type some_command to verify some_command is found in your path.

• If your command is not an executable, but rather a shell builtin, you'll need to execute it with a shell instead of directly. That can be done with docker exec -it $cid /bin/sh -c "your_shell_builtin"

I solved this with this commands:

1. Run the container:

   docker run -d <image-name>
   

2. List containers:

   docker ps -a
   

3. Use the container ID:

   docker exec -it <container-id> /bin/sh
   

I was running into this issue and it turned out that I needed to do this:

docker run ${image_name} bash -c "${command}"

You can use another shell to execute the same command:

Error I get when i execute:

[jenkins@localhost jenkins_data]$ docker exec -it mysqldb \bin\bash
OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: container_linux.go:345: starting container process caused "exec: \"binsh\": executable file not found in $PATH": unknown

Solution: When I execute it with below command, using bash shell it works:

[jenkins@localhost jenkins_data]$ docker exec -it mysqldb bash
root@<container-ID>:/#

What I did to solve was simply:

1. Run docker ps -a
2. Check for the command of the container (mine started with /bin/sh)
3. Run docker-compose exec < name_of_service > /bin/sh (if that is what started your command

This is for solving when using docker compose

This has happened to me. My issue was caused when I didn't mount Docker file system correctly, so I configured the Disk Image Location and re-bind File sharing mount, and this now worked correctly. For reference, I use Docker Desktop in Windows.

In my case i saved the docker image and instead of load-ing it on the other machine i imported it which are very different and lead me to an error similar to this.

you have to run like below:

docker exec sh -c 'echo "$ENV_NAME"'

I had windows line endings in a shell script. change to LF dos2unix

I was running a container in a docker-compose.

entrypoint:
  - ls

worked, but

entrypoint:
   - ls tests

did not.

It's because the arguments have to be on separate lines.. 臘‍♂

entrypoint:
   - ls 
   - tests