Linux – “date -d” command fails on Docker Alpine Linux container

alpine-linuxcontainerdatedockerlinux

I built Alpine Linux in a Docker container with the following Dockerfile:

FROM alpine:3.2
RUN apk add --update jq curl && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*

the build run successfully:

$ docker build -t collector .
Sending build context to Docker daemon 2.048 kB
Sending build context to Docker daemon 
Step 0 : FROM alpine:3.2
3.2: Pulling from alpine
8697b6cc1f48: Already exists 
alpine:3.2: The image you are pulling has been verified. Important: image verification is a tech preview feature and should not be relied on to provide security.
Digest: sha256:eb84cc74347e4d7c484d566dec8a5eef82bab1b78308b92cda559bcff29c27cc
Status: Downloaded newer image for alpine:3.2
 ---> 8697b6cc1f48
Step 1 : RUN apk add --update jq curl && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*
 ---> Running in 888571296e79
fetch http://dl-4.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.2/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
(1/11) Installing run-parts (4.4-r0)
(2/11) Installing openssl (1.0.2a-r1)
(3/11) Installing lua5.2-libs (5.2.4-r0)
(4/11) Installing lua5.2 (5.2.4-r0)
(5/11) Installing ncurses-terminfo-base (5.9-r3)
(6/11) Installing ncurses-widec-libs (5.9-r3)
(7/11) Installing lua5.2-posix (33.3.1-r2)
(8/11) Installing ca-certificates (20141019-r2)
(9/11) Installing libssh2 (1.5.0-r0)
(10/11) Installing curl (7.42.1-r0)
(11/11) Installing jq (1.4-r0)
Executing busybox-1.23.2-r0.trigger
Executing ca-certificates-20141019-r2.trigger
OK: 9 MiB in 26 packages
 ---> 7625779b773d
Removing intermediate container 888571296e79
Successfully built 7625779b773d

anyway when I run date -d it fails:

$ docker run -i -t collector sh
/ # date -d yesterday
date: invalid date 'yesterday'
/ # date -d now
date: invalid date 'now'
/ # date -d next-month
date: invalid date 'next-month'

while the rest of the options seem running ok: 

/ # date 
Sat May 30 18:57:24 UTC 2015
/ # date +"%A"
Saturday
/ # date +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"
2015-05-30T19:00:38Z

Best Answer

BusyBox/Alpine version of date doesn't support -d options, even if the help is exatly the same in the Ubuntu version as well as in others more fat distros.

Also the "containerization" doesn't miss anything here.

To work with -d options you just need to add coreutils package:

$ cat Dockerfile.alpine-coreutils
FROM alpine:3.2
RUN apk add --update coreutils && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*


$ docker build -t alpine-coreutils - <  Dockerfile.alpine-coreutils
Sending build context to Docker daemon 2.048 kB
Sending build context to Docker daemon 
Step 0 : FROM alpine:3.2
3.2: Pulling from alpine
8697b6cc1f48: Already exists 
alpine:3.2: The image you are pulling has been verified. Important: image verification is a tech preview feature and should not be relied on to provide security.
Digest: sha256:eb84cc74347e4d7c484d566dec8a5eef82bab1b78308b92cda559bcff29c27cc
Status: Downloaded newer image for alpine:3.2
 ---> 8697b6cc1f48
Step 1 : RUN apk add --update coreutils && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*
 ---> Running in 694fa5cb271c
fetch http://dl-4.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.2/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
(1/3) Installing libattr (2.4.47-r3)
(2/3) Installing libacl (2.2.52-r2)
(3/3) Installing coreutils (8.23-r0)
Executing busybox-1.23.2-r0.trigger
OK: 12 MiB in 18 packages
 ---> a7d9116a00ee
Removing intermediate container 694fa5cb271c
Successfully built a7d9116a00ee


$ docker run -i -t alpine-coreutils sh
/ # date -d last-week
Sun May 24 09:19:34 UTC 2015
/ # date -d yesterday 
Sat May 30 09:19:46 UTC 2015
/ # date 
Sun May 31 09:19:50 UTC 2015

The image size will double but is till 11.47 MB, more than an order of siZe less, compared to Debian standard : 

$ docker images
REPOSITORY                 TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             VIRTUAL SIZE
alpine-coreutils           latest              a7d9116a00ee        2 minutes ago       11.47 MB
alpine                     3.2                 8697b6cc1f48        2 days ago          5.242 MB
debian                     latest              df2a0347c9d0        11 days ago         125.2 MB

Thanks to Andy Shinn: https://github.com/gliderlabs/docker-alpine/issues/40#issuecomment-107122371

And to Christopher Horrell: https://github.com/docker-library/official-images/issues/771#issuecomment-107101595

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