Docker Build with --link no longer works on Ubuntu 22.04 build 2.317.0

[chrisjohnson00]

Description

When building a Docker Container which contains a COPY --link x y command, commands which reference this path fail stating

0.036 runc run failed: unable to start container process: error during container init: mkdir /src: not a directory

I have builds which succeed with the use of --link using the same version of the runner. However, all new builds fail consistently now. If it isn't the runner itself, then it could be the underlying disk infrastructure.
FWIW - All our actions are pinned to tags via hashes, so there has been no change to the action code we run.

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
• GitHub Actions - Larger Runners

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 20.04
• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• macOS 11
• macOS 12
• macOS 13
• macOS 13 Arm64
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022

Image version and build link

Fails on

   Image: ubuntu-22.04
  Version: 20240616.1.0

Last passing build was

   Image: ubuntu-22.04
  Version: 20240616.1.0

Is it regression?

No?

Expected behavior

Successful container build

Actual behavior

Any Dockerfile reference to the path containing a link fails with the following error

0.036 runc run failed: unable to start container process: error during container init: mkdir /src: not a directory

Repro steps

A simple way to reproduce this is to build:

FROM node:18-alpine AS base

WORKDIR /src

COPY --link package.json package-lock.json .

RUN ls -la /src

It will fail with the above error message.
Removing --link from the COPY results in a successful build.

[RaviAkshintala]

@chrisjohnson00 Thank you for bringing this issue to us, we are investigating on this issue and we will update you on this issue after our findings.

[RaviAkshintala]

Hi @chrisjohnson00, We tried with your repro steps it was succeeded with no errors.

Kindly retry the same.

name: Docker Image CI

on:
 push
 
jobs:
 build:
   runs-on: ubuntu-22.04

   steps:
   - uses: actions/checkout@v4

   - name: Build Docker image
     run: |
       docker build -t my-docker-image .
   - name: Run Docker image
     run: |
       docker run my-docker-image



    
  
 

[chrisjohnson00]

@RaviAkshintala I concur.
And I counter you with this workflow, which does fail. Perhaps this is a buildx issue?

name: Docker Image CI

on:
 push

jobs:
 build:
   runs-on: ubuntu-22.04

   steps:
   - uses: actions/checkout@v4

   - name: Set up Docker Buildx
     uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@d70bba72b1f3fd22344832f00baa16ece964efeb  # v3.3.0, 2024-04-08

   - name: Build Docker image
     run: |
       docker buildx build -t my-docker-image .
   - name: Run Docker image
     run: |
       docker run my-docker-image

[RaviAkshintala]

@chrisjohnson00,

Could you please retry with the below modified Dockerfile.

FROM node:18-alpine AS base

WORKDIR /src

COPY --link package.json package-lock.json ./

RUN ls -la /src

[chrisjohnson00]

@chrisjohnson00,

Could you please retry with the below modified Dockerfile.

FROM node:18-alpine AS base

WORKDIR /src

COPY --link package.json package-lock.json ./

RUN ls -la /src

yup, works.
Odd that COPY --link x . worked, then didn't work though.