docker-compose gives ERROR: Cannot locate specified Dockerfile: Dockerfile

Question

I've cloned a docker setup which uses docker-compose. One remote developer confirms it works so my problem seems to be with my setup.

I ran docker-compose up, but that currently gives me this:

$ docker-compose up
Creating volume "mycompanydocker_mysql-data" with local driver
Creating volume "mycompanydocker_redis-data" with local driver
Creating volume "mycompanydocker_app-data" with local driver
Creating volume "mycompanydocker_mongo-data" with local driver
mycompanydocker_redis_1 is up-to-date
mycompanydocker_mongo_1 is up-to-date
mycompanydocker_mysql_1 is up-to-date
Building app
ERROR: Cannot locate specified Dockerfile: Dockerfile

My docker-compose.yml looks like this:

version: '2'

services:
  mysql:
    build: mysql/.
    env_file: env
    expose:
    - 3306
    ports:
    - "3306:3306"
    volumes:
    - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql

  mongo:
    build: mongo/.
    env_file: env
    expose:
    - 27017
    ports:
    - "27017:27017"
    volumes:
    - mongo-data:/data/db

  redis:
    build: redis/.
    env_file: env
    expose:
    - 6379
    ports:
    - "6379:6379"
    volumes:
    - redis-data:/data

  app:
    build: app/.
    env_file: env
    expose:
     - 80
    ports:
    - "80:80"
    volumes:
    # To mount a local directory, change this
    # To use a docker volume
    - app-data:/app
    # local app
    # - ./mycompany:/app
    depends_on:
    - mysql
    - mongo
    - redis

volumes:
  app-data:
    driver: local
  mysql-data:
    driver: local
  redis-data:
    driver: local
  mongo-data:
    driver: local

and the tree looks like this:

$ tree
.
├── README.rst
├── app
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── bin
│   │   ├── setup.sh
│   │   ├── start-nginx.sh
│   │   ├── start-rqworker.sh
│   │   ├── start.sh
│   │   └── update.sh
│   ├── etc
│   │   ├── nginx
│   │   │   └── sites-available
│   │   │       └── app
│   │   ├── supervisor
│   │   │   └── conf.d
│   │   │       └── supervisord.conf
│   │   └── supervisord.conf
│   └── ssh
│       └── id_rsa
├── docker-compose.yml
├── env
├── mongo
│   └── Dockerfile
├── mysql
│   └── Dockerfile
└── redis
    └── Dockerfile

The thing I don't understand is that docker-compose seems to find all Dockerfiles, except for the one in the app folder. I've got the following installed on OSX 10.11.2:

Docker version 1.10.3, build 20f81dd
docker-compose version 1.6.2, build 4d72027

I'm just starting out with Docker and I'm kinda stuck here. Does anybody know what could possibly be wrong or how I can debug this? All tips are welcome!

[EDIT]
I forgot to mention that there is no hidden .dockerignore file:

$ ls -la
total 56
drwx------@   11 kramer  staff    374 25 mrt 14:13 .
drwx------+ 1134 kramer  staff  38556 26 mrt 17:27 ..
-rw-r--r--@    1 kramer  staff   8196 26 mrt 08:14 .DS_Store
-rw-r--r--@    1 kramer  staff     23 24 mrt 15:29 .gitignore
-rw-r--r--@    1 kramer  staff   3879 24 mrt 15:29 README.rst
drwxr-xr-x@    7 kramer  staff    238 25 mrt 14:26 app
-rw-r--r--@    1 kramer  staff    868 25 mrt 17:50 docker-compose.yml
-rw-r--r--@    1 kramer  staff    219 24 mrt 15:29 env
drwxr-xr-x@    3 kramer  staff    102 24 mrt 15:29 mongo
drwxr-xr-x@    3 kramer  staff    102 24 mrt 15:29 mysql
drwxr-xr-x@    3 kramer  staff    102 24 mrt 15:29 redis

and the .gitignore file doesn't contain anything special either (don't know if it matters):

$ cat .gitignore
.project
.pydevproject

user_2557682 · Answer

I had this problem on Windows with a docker-compose.yml created by a Visual Studio template. The template was created as:

build:
  context: .
  dockerfile: \Dockerfile

And I was getting error: Cannot locate specified Dockerfile: \Dockerfile. I changed the \ to / and it started working for me (i.e. /Dockerfile). Maybe that will help if anyone has this error on Windows.

user_9561870 · Answer

Inside the docker-compose.yml file to do the change, in order to meet the Dockerfile:

app:
  build: ./app

user_2652875 · Answer

You need to specify the docker file name properly and it is case sensitive. I had uppercase letter in DockerFile and so it cannot find them. Hope it helps someone, who struggled like me. Better to use the dockerfile attribute in docker compose file.

app:
    build:
      dockerfile: DockerFile

user_8384184 · Answer

Tried several variations, for some unknown reason I had to use an absolute path for it to work

├── visit-count
|   ├── docker-compose.yml
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── files
│   │   ├── index.js
│   │   ├── package.json

version: '3.5'
services:
  visit-count:
    build: 
      context: /Users/deltapeng/source/repos/visit-count/files/
      dockerfile: /Users/deltapeng/source/repos/visit-count/Dockerfile

But after I got above working, found that this relative path worked too.

version: '3.5'
services:
  visit-count:
    build: 
      context: ./files/
      dockerfile: ../

user_1339254 · Answer

In my case it was wrong branch on git. Don't forget to set the specific branch if you build your image from remote context. Url for context should looks like this:

services:                                                                                                                                                                                                 
wss-home:                                                                                                                                                                                               
  build:                                                                                                                                                                                                
  context: "http://${LOGIN}:${PASSWD}@host/path/to/repository.git#branch_name"                                                                                                        
  dockerfile: Dockerfile.prod

user_3839882 · Answer

Had this problem with Visual Studio's automatically created docker-compose file and tried @crgolden solution but it didn't work.

I only get it to run after:

1) Renaming the file VS created from DockerFile to Dockerfile (notice the lower case 'f')
2) change the config to this:
services:
    ...
    :
         build:
             context: 
             dockerfile: Dockerfile

user_12661184 · Answer

wrong path, my shortest way on linux ubuntu when dockerfile and compose in same location

build: ./

user_5380867 · Answer

  build: 
          context: ./
          dockerfile: DockerFile

this might help for version:'3.8' for the current directory set up otherwise, have to specify dockerfile absolute path like

build: 
          context: .
          dockerfile: \DockerFile

user_7600089 · Answer

I ran into this error because I had my docker-compose in a child directory. What I didn't realize is that in a docker-compose file:

The build context you specify is relative to where the docker-compose file is located (in the correct first screenshot, the build context moves up two directories from the docker compose file location and is at the base of the repository)
The dockerfile location you specify is relative to where the build context is set (in the correct first screenshot, I need to go down two directories, into service/deploy, to find the Dockerfile because I just set the context two directories up)

What I was doing before which was resulting in the error: "Cannot locate specified Dockerfile":

I hope this helps someone out!

user_5064331 · Answer

I had faced the same issue on ubuntu vm. I did the following steps:

sudo apt-get remove docker-compose
sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.23.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/docker-compose /usr/bin/docker-compose

I hope this will resolve this issue.

user_6736302 · Answer

build:
context: ./
dockerfile: DockerFile

just add

build:
context: ./
dockerfile: DockerFile.dockerfile

docker-compose gives ERROR: Cannot locate specified Dockerfile: Dockerfile

13 Answers