Docker gets error "failed to compute cache key: not found" - runs fine in Visual Studio

Check your .dockerignore file. Possible it ignores needed files for copy command and you get failed to compute cache key error.

.dockerignore may be configured to minimize the files sent to docker for performance and security:

* 
!dist/

The first line * disallows all files. The second line !dist/ allows the dist folder

This can cause unexpected behavior:

FROM nginx:latest

# Fails because of * in .dockerignore
# failed to compute cache key: "/nginx.conf.spa" not found: not found
# Fix by adding `!nginx.conf.spa`  to .dockerignore
COPY nginx.conf.spa /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

RUN mkdir /app

# Works because of !dist/ in .dockerignore
COPY dist/spa /app

Belts and suspenders.

I had the same issue, I set the Docker environment to Windows in when adding Docker support. Even running in Visual Studio threw error to that. I changed the environment to Linux as my Docker is running in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Then I moved back to the terminal to run the commands.

I was able to resolve this by moving to the Solutions folder (Root folder).

And I did docker build like this:

docker build -t containername/tag -f ProjectFolder/Dockerfile .

Then I did docker run:

docker run containername/tag

Asking for a directory that does not exist throws this error.

In my case, I tried

 > [stage-1  7/14] COPY /.ssh/id_rsa.pub /.ssh/:
------
failed to compute cache key: "/.ssh/id_rsa.pub" not found: not found

I had forgotten to add the /.ssh folder to the project directory. In your case you should check whether /client is really a subfolder of your Dockerfile build context.

The following command was failing with failed to compute cache key: not found:

docker build -t tag-name:v1.5.1 - <Dockerfile

Upon changing the command to the following it got fixed:

docker build -t tag-name:v1.5.1 -f Dockerfile .

Error : failed to compute cache key: "src" not found: not found 

in my case , folder/file excluded in .dockerignore

after resolving file from dockerignore able to create image.

I had a similar issues: Apparently, docker roots the file system during build to the specified build directory for security reasons. As a result, COPY and ADD cannot refer to arbitrary locations on the host file system. Additionally, there are other issues with syntax peculiarities. What eventually worked was the following:

COPY ./script_file.sh  /
RUN /script_file.sh

In my case I found that docker build is case sensitive in directory name, so I was writing /bin/release/net5.0/publish in the COPY instruction and failed with the same error, I've just changed to /bin/Release/net5.0/publish and it worked

In my case, I had something like this:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:5.0
COPY bin/Release/net5.0/publish/ app/
WORKDIR /app
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApi.dll"]

And I finally realized that I had the bin folder in my .dockerignore file.

It's all due to an error in the dockerignore file. If you check that the file has ignore target then leave it out

In my case I changed context, and path of Dockerfile within docker-compose.yml config:

services:
    server:
        # inheritance structru
        extends:
            file: ../../docker-compose.server.yml
        # I recommend you to play with this paths
        build:
            context: ../../
            dockerfile: ./apps/${APP_NAME}/Dockerfile
        ...

Moving the Dockerfile one folder up as suggested by m.mitin worked for me as well. The instructions in the Dockerfile assume it is outside the project folder, it has nothing to do with minimization of files. In fact, I deliberately copied the project files directly onto my server and got the same error. I think the team at Microsoft should do something about to avoid productivity loss caused by this issue.

Use docker build -f Dockerfile .. from the directory where the Dockerfile exists (Note the 2 dots at the end). Official docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/containers/container-build?view=vs-2022#use-docker-build

I had the same issue. In my case there was a wrong directory specified. My Dockerfile was:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:5.0 AS publish
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o publish/web src/MyApp/MyApp.csproj

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:5.0
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=publish publish/web .
EXPOSE 80
CMD ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://*:$PORT dotnet MyApp.dll

Then I realised that in the second build stage I am trying to copy project files from directory publish/web:

COPY --from=publish publish/web .

But as I specified workdir /app in the first stage, my files are located in that directory in image filesystem, so changing path from publish/web to app/publish/web resolved my issue.

So my final working Dockerfile is:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:5.0 AS publish
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o publish/web src/MyApp/MyApp.csproj

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:5.0
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=publish app/publish/web .
EXPOSE 80
CMD ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://*:$PORT dotnet MyApp.dll

In my case there was a sneaky trailing whitespace in the file name.

------
 > [3/3] COPY init.sh ./:
------
failed to compute cache key: "/init.sh" not found: not found

So the file was actually called "init.sh " instead of "init.sh".

The nginx.conf file must be included to be published. Right Click on the nginx.conf file and open the Properties. Change "Copy to output directory" to "Copy always"

I face the same issue when I am trying to include a Docker service in my existing ASP.NET Core 8 project. I run the following command in the Dockerfile directory:

Dockerfile_folder> docker build -t fapi .

The reason I found is that the Dockerfile and the .dockerignore file are in different folders. So, I navigate to the gitignore folder in my CMD and then run the following Docker command, after which my application starts running as expected:

gitignore_folder> docker build -f API\Dockerfile -t fapi .

I had faced the same issue.

The reason was the name of the DLL file in the Docker file is case sensitive.

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:5.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src
COPY MyFirstMicroService.csproj .
RUN dotnet restore
COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish -c release -o /app

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:5.0
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "**MyFirstMicroService.dll**"]

This .dll name should match your .csproj file.

in my case, it was a wrong Build with PATH configuration e.g. Docker build context

1. Simple docker script

   docker build . 
   

   where . is path to build context
2. Gradle+Docker

   docker {
       dependsOn build
       dependsOn dockerFilesCopy
       name "${project.name}:${project.version}"
       files "build" // path to build context
   }
   

3. Gradle+GitHub action

   name: Docker build and push
   
   on:
     push:
       branches: [ main ]
   
   # ...
   
   jobs:
     build:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
   
       # ...
   
       steps:
         - name: Checkout
           uses: actions/checkout@v2
   
        # ...
   
         - name: Build and export to Docker
           uses: docker/build-push-action@v2
           with:
             # ...
             file: src/main/docker/Dockerfile      
             context: ./build                      # path to build context
   

For Laravel users...

I got this error when running docker compose up and it was due to there being a storage folder symlink in my public folder.

After deleting the symlink, the command executed successfully.

Firstly, my dockerfile looked like this:

FROM node:18

WORKDIR /app
COPY ./ /app
RUN npm install
EXPOSE 3000
CMD npm run dev

then it gave me the error: npm cound not find package.json

and after adding this to dockerfile:

COPY ./package.json ./app

and running the command :

docker build -f Dockerfile . (don't forget to add the dot at the end)

and that solved it.

In my case the copy command was using parent directories:

COPY ../../../www /var/www/

I had to change to

COPY ./www /var/www/

and it worked for me

In my case it was working fine in Visual Studio, but got this issue when trying to build via Azure DevOps pipelines because it uses the location of the Dockerfile as its default build context. By explicitly specifying the build context as $(Build.SourcesDirectory) it resolved the issue.

The step in my yaml script was specified as:

  - task: Docker@2
    displayName: Build an image
    inputs:
      command: build
      buildContext: $(Build.SourcesDirectory)
      Dockerfile: '**/Dockerfile'

As opposed to other comments, I did not change anything specific in my file system nor build commands. The build was working fine and one day it didn't. I started getting:

failed to solve: failed to compute cache key: failed to calculate checksum of ref..

Restarting docker did not solve the issue. Couldn't find the actual reason, but restarting the computer fixed it.

This also happens when you don't provide the proper path to your COPY command input. The most important clue I had is that WORKDIR command opens a folder for the container, not in the windows explorer (so it doesn't affect the path you need to specify for the COPY command).

In my Case, i was doing mistake in '/' and ''. Let me explain Open your dockerfile (it should be named as dockerfile only, not DockerFile or Dockerfile). You may have something like this- FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/runtime:5.0 COPY bin\Release\net5.0\publish . ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "HelloDocker.dll"]

Replace COPY bin\Release\net5.0\publish . to COPY bin/Release/net5.0/publish .

In my case, with Angular project, my project was in the folder called ex: My-Folder-Project and I was putting on Dockerfile COPY --from=publish app/dist/My-Folder-Project . But of course the correct thing is put the "name" in your package.json like COPY --from=publish app/dist/name-in-package.json .

I run into a similar issue where I was attempting to run the docker build command. I created a folder called "Docker" and inside of it another folder called "getting-started". I kept running into the error:

"failed to compute cache key: "/public" not found: not found"

Took me a while to realize that I should run the command from the "getting-started" folder instead of "Docker". It worked on I did so..

I also got this error, first it resolved by removing some files from .dockerignore.

After that, I used a variable and haven't used $ operator to resolve it. Added $ before "{variable}", it worked for me.

Anyone coming here after googling struggling with this on an ARM based Mac, you can try disabling Rosetta emulation in docker desktop.