[SOLVED] Laravel docker /usr/sbin/apache2ctl,: not found exited with code 127

• Full Bright
• 2 minutes to read
• Jun 3, 2022 (2 years and 6 months ago) (Updated: Dec 21, 2024)
• 12 Comments

Summary

• My application setup
• The error I am facing
• The solution
• Conclusion

I recently finished a Laravel project and I steped one more step to package it in docker. In the process I encountered a strange behaviour. The docker-compose tool threw this error /usr/sbin/apache2ctl,: not found exited with code 127 at me. I finally managed to solve it. Here is how.

My plan is to bundle the Laravel application into a docker image then resuse it in other services. I have done it before and I was following the same path.

Then I stumbled upon a strange error.

Let’s check my setup first and then dive into the solution.

My application setup

I have a simple application that I want to bundle in docker. It is used on Ubuntu operating system.

It has a folder docker/web where the Dockerfile is stored.

The source code is in the current directory.

Here is the Dockerfile:

version : '3'

services:
  web: 
    container_name: laravel_web
    build:
      context: ./docker/web
    ports:
      - 9000:80
    volumes:
      - ./:/var/www/app

I then use this Dockerfile in my compose file.

Here is my docker-compose.yml file.

FROM php:7.2.10-apache-stretch

RUN apt-get update -yqq && \
    apt-get install -y apt-utils zip unzip && \
    apt-get install -y nano && \
    apt-get install -y libzip-dev libpq-dev && \
    a2enmod rewrite && \
    docker-php-ext-install pdo_pgsql && \
    docker-php-ext-install pgsql && \
    docker-php-ext-configure zip --with-libzip && \
    docker-php-ext-install zip && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

RUN php -r "readfile('http://getcomposer.org/installer');"|php -- --install-dir=/usr/bin --filename=composer

COPY Default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

WORKDIR /var/www/app

EXPOSE 80

CMD ['/usr/sbin/apache2ctl', '-D', 'FOREGROUND']

My setup is now complete.

Let’s see what happens when I run it.

The error I am facing

To run my application I issue this command:

docker-compose up

I was expecting this to run smoothly but I get this error:

Starting laravel_web ... done
Attaching to laravel_web
laravel_web | /bin/sh: 1: [/usr/sbin/apache2ctl,: not found
laravel_web exited with code 127

I first thought that the apache2ctl was not in the system. I looked here and here but couldn’t find the root cause.

Then I found this post that led me to the solution.

The solution

You must use double quotes instead of single quotes in the Dockerfile.

This is what you should have:

CMD ["/usr/sbin/apache2ctl", "-D", "FOREGROUND"]

Conclusion

It is funny how little details can break a whole project. I was surprised by the impact of single version double quotes on the project. I have encountered another issue coming from a little detail here but this one is surprising.

If you’re interested in learning how to solve the could not open input file issue in Laravel using docker image, our blog post on could not open input file: artisan has everything you need to know.

I hope this solution helped.

Drop a comment below if you have questions.

• en
• laravel

• #docker
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• #laravel