Is it possible to answer dialog questions when installing under docker? Is it possible to answer dialog questions when installing under docker? docker docker

Is it possible to answer dialog questions when installing under docker?


See the discussion here: https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/4032. In short, setting ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive is not recommended as it persists in the final image, even when running something like docker run -i -t ... bash. Therefore it is recommended either to omit DEBIAN_FRONTEND and live with the warning, or specify it explicitly for each command e.g. RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y -q package.

Fortunately, the new ARG directive sets variables that only live during the build so a more elegant solution is now possible that's specified in the DockerFile yet does not persist in the final image: ARG DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive.


You should set DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive as an envvar. In most cases this will at least make it so the installation doesn't error out.

Also as @Azdle mentioned, using debconf-set-selections will let you set specific items.


As usual, a little more searching found the answer.

The answer is debconf-set-selections. Manpage: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/oneiric/en/man1/debconf-set-selections.1.html

To find the options that can be set use debconf-get-selections on a system that already has the package installed. You'll need to install debconf-utils for the second command.