No longer able to install Salesforce CLI on alpine linux (Docker): "env: unrecognized option: S"

[gdman]

Summary

We run all of our builds in Docker containers using Alpine linux as the base operating system. Since last week our build has started failing - SF will no longer run.

The error message is:
"env: unrecognized option: S"

I've done some investigation, it looks like #!/usr/bin/env node changed to #!/usr/bin/env -S node --no-deprecation as part of this PR: https://github.com/salesforcecli/cli/pull/1971/files. This makes use of the -S option in env but this option isn't available on all operating systems. In particular, this isn't available in Busybox which is what's used in Alpine Linux.

Please could you revert this changes and look to implement another way without use of -S?

Version: 2.69.14

Update:
I have worked around this by adding coreutils (apk add coreutils) into the image. This has the newer version of env which supports the -S argument.

This could still be other cases of the same issue.

[github-actions]

Hello @gdman 👋 It looks like you didn't include the full Salesforce CLI version information in your issue.
Please provide the output of version --verbose --json for the CLI you're using (sf or sfdx).

A few more things to check:

• Make sure you've provided detailed steps to reproduce your issue.
  • A repository that clearly demonstrates the bug is ideal.
• Make sure you've installed the latest version of Salesforce CLI. (docs)
  • Better yet, try the rc or nightly versions. (docs)
• Try running the doctor command to diagnose common issues.
• Search GitHub for existing related issues.

Thank you!

[github-actions]

Thank you for filing this issue. We appreciate your feedback and will review the issue as soon as possible. Remember, however, that GitHub isn't a mechanism for receiving support under any agreement or SLA. If you require immediate assistance, contact Salesforce Customer Support.

[git2gus]

This issue has been linked to a new work item: W-17445225

[iowillhoit]

Thanks for reporting this @gdman, we are looking into it

[cristiand391]

I've been playing around with this for a while but can't think of a way to make it work on macos/ubuntu and busybox's env...

even in latest busybox, env is pretty limited and shebang line behave different, can't inline env vars like this:

/ # /usr/bin/env TEST=1 node
Welcome to Node.js v22.12.0.
Type ".help" for more information.
> process.env.TEST
'1'

the suggested way of doing this cross-platform seems to be making a script (sh would be more "portable" and work with alpine), see: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/20880/how-can-i-use-environment-variables-in-my-shebang

Given Alpine linux isn't really supported by us (you can't use the official installers, require node's alpine which isn't tier 1 supported) I'm not sure if we would make such a big change like that, we'll discuss with the team what are the options and get back.

[cristiand391]

After discussing with the team we decided we can't prioritize fixing this for Alpine linux.
As mentioned in the comment above, fixing this for all platforms would require the CLI entrypoint to be a shell script which requires a lot of work on the oclif side (CLI framework).

The suggested workaround for Alpine Linux users is to use coreutils:
https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/How_to_get_regular_stuff_working

Hopefully once we remove the chain of dependencies importing punycode sf would work again with busybox's env.

[carlosabella]

@cristiand391 Sorry to ask here, in a closed thread, but I would like to have more information about this statement: "Given Alpine linux isn't really supported by us (you can't use the official installers, require node's alpine which isn't tier 1 supported)"

What are the SO supported? apart from Ubuntu what others? Where is it documented? The usage of Alpine is because it is lightweight and it is a huge difference between using Alpine and Ubuntu for instance. If Alpine it is not supported, it would be great to know what other lightweight options we have.

Thanks a lot.

[gdman]

@cristiand391 Sorry to ask here, in a closed thread, but I would like to have more information about this statement: "Given Alpine linux isn't really supported by us (you can't use the official installers, require node's alpine which isn't tier 1 supported)"

What are the SO supported? apart from Ubuntu what others? Where is it documented? The usage of Alpine is because it is lightweight and it is a huge difference between using Alpine and Ubuntu for instance. If Alpine it is not supported, it would be great to know what other lightweight options we have.

Thanks a lot.

I'll leave the question of officially supported operating systems to Salesforce (I'd be interested too).

Whilst it might not be supported (as I only found out from this thread), I've been using Alpine with Salesforce CLI successfully for at least 6/7 years and continue to use it now. This thread is the only Alpine compatibility issue I've had and was easily worked around by installing coreutils.

[carlosabella]

Well, there is another issue, you can't install Salesforce CLI using the bundle. You can only install salesforce CLI by using npm. Wether this should be a choice, install the bundle or using npm ... with Alpine you can only use npm.

[cristiand391]

What are the SO supported? apart from Ubuntu what others? Where is it documented? The usage of Alpine is because it is lightweight and it is a huge difference between using Alpine and Ubuntu for instance. If Alpine it is not supported, it would be great to know what other lightweight options we have.

The CLI is written in JS so we need to ship a node.js binary for each platform we support, right now we ship installer and tarballs for:

• windows (x86,x64,arm64)
• linux (x64)
• macos (x64, arm64)

This is because all these platforms are tier 1 (except for win arm64 which is tier 2) and ship official binaries, we don't support alpine mainly because it's in the experimental support tier (there's no official builds for it):

https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/main/BUILDING.md#supported-platforms

That's why you can't use our linux installers (glibc required) on alpine.

[carlosabella]

Thanks a lot @cristiand391 this information is very helpful for us.