compose: Secrets invalid mount config for type 'bind' mount path must be absolute

Description of the issue

Docker compose does not convert secrets source path correctly while using docker toolbox (virtualbox).

Context information (for bug reports)

Output of docker-compose version

docker-compose version 1.24.0dev, build unknown
docker-py version: 3.7.0
CPython version: 3.7.2
OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.1.0j  20 Nov 2018

Output of docker version

Client:
 Version:           18.09.2
 API version:       1.39
 Go version:        go1.11.5
 Git commit:        62479626f2
 Built:             Wed Feb 13 09:02:49 2019
 OS/Arch:           windows/amd64
 Experimental:      false

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          18.09.3
  API version:      1.39 (minimum version 1.12)
  Go version:       go1.10.8
  Git commit:       774a1f4
  Built:            Thu Feb 28 06:40:51 2019
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false

Output of docker-compose config (Make sure to add the relevant -f and other flags)

secrets:
  password:
    file: C:\Users\Joaom\teste\secrets\password
  user:
    file: C:\Users\Joaom\teste\secrets\user
services:
  rice:
    image: alpine:3.8
    secrets:
    - source: password
    - source: user
version: '3.6'

Steps to reproduce the issue

Install docker toolbox latest release from Docker toolbox repository on a Windows 10 Home Edition computer.
docker-compose up -d

Observed result

Secrets are not mounted in the container, because compose is not converting path from Windows to unix Style correctly like it does for volumes.

Expected result

secrets to be mounted successfully.

Stacktrace / full error message

Creating network "teste_default" with the default driver
Creating teste_rice_1 ... error

ERROR: for teste_rice_1  Cannot create container for service rice: invalid mount config for type "bind": invalid mount path: 'C:/Users/Joaom/teste/secrets/password' mount path must be absolute

ERROR: for rice  Cannot create container for service rice: invalid mount config for type "bind": invalid mount path: 'C:/Users/Joaom/teste/secrets/password' mount path must be absolute
ERROR: Encountered errors while bringing up the project.

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 5 years ago
Reactions: 11
Comments: 24 (3 by maintainers)

Commits related to this issue

Fix to secrets paths on Dockertoolbox #6585 — committed to Fiercely/compose by jpcmadeira 5 years ago
fix: hardcoded secret env vars until windows issue has been resolved https://github.com/docker/compose/issues/6585 — committed to TaitoUnited/full-stack-template by keskiju 5 years ago

Most upvoted comments

I am having this issue too. Any update on this?

kpachhai on Aug 21, 2019

@chris-crone The last laptop I bought 5-6 years ago came with Windows 8 (OEM) and I’ve been using this laptop for local development since then. If I had a choice when I bought it back then, it would properly be running Windows 7, my preferred edition of Windows.

TawapahDev on May 16, 2020

@joshooaj , I’ve transformed my compose.yaml file according to your comment:

services:
  telebot:
    image: ...
    secrets:
      - source: tg_bot_token
        target: /run/secrets/
    environment:
      TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN: /run/secrets/tg_bot.token
# ...
secrets:
  tg_bot_token:
    file: secrets

, where secrets is a folder next to compose.yaml file containing the secret tg_bot.token file.

Unfortunately, the result hasn’t changed:

c:\lang\stegotext\telebot>docker compose up
[+] Running 0/1
 - Container telebot  Recreate                                                                                                                         0.2s
Error response from daemon: invalid mount config for type "bind": invalid mount path: 'c:/lang/stegotext/telebot/secrets' mount path must be absolute

I think the difference is in the fact that I’m using Windows not inside but outside the container, i.e. on the host machine, and Docker for some reason fails to resolve the path to the secret in this format.

Anyway thanks for the suggestion!

Toparvion on Sep 7, 2023

It’s 2023 but the issue still here. I’m using Docker Desktop v4.19.0 (docker v23.0.5 and docker-compose v2.17.3) with the following compose.yaml file:

services:
  telebot:
    image: ...
    secrets:
      - tg_bot_token
    environment:
      TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN: /run/secrets/tg_bot_token
...
secrets:
  tg_bot_token:
    file: telebot.token

and when launching docker-compose up, I’m getting the following:

[+] Running 0/1
 - Container a19fccf13764_telebot  Recreate                                                                                                            0.2s
Error response from daemon: invalid mount config for type "bind": invalid mount path: 'c:/lang/stegotext/telebot/telebot.token' mount path must be absolute

I’ve tried various forms of the secret path:

telebot.token
./telebot.token
c:/absolute/path/telebot.token
c:\absolute\path\telebot.token
c:\\absolute\\path\\telebot.token

but the result stays the same.

@jpcmadeira, @chris-crone , since the attached PR was not merged, is there a workaround or another issue that’s hopefully will be addressed?

Toparvion on May 21, 2023

Given that there still seems to be no solution for this, is there a way to request this issue be repoened, or should I open a new issue linking to this one?

Virakal on Jun 10, 2020

@chris-crone I need Virtualbox for various projects (I’m aware VBox can theoretically work with Hyper-V enabled but last time I tried it wouldn’t work on most machines, including mine, and was reported to be extremely slow and unsupported); Vagrant, which I have tried with Hyper-V but found it to be an awful experience; and Android emulators, where the only Hyper-V compatible one I’m aware of doesn’t perform well enough for my needs.

Virakal on May 15, 2020