How to apt-get install in a GitHub Actions workflow?

Question

In the new GitHub Actions, I am trying to install a package in order to use it in one of the next steps.

name: CI

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  translations:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v1
      with:
        fetch-depth: 1
    - name: Install xmllint
      run: apt-get install libxml2-utils
    # ...

However this fails with

Run apt-get install libxml2-utils
  apt-get install libxml2-utils
  shell: /bin/bash -e {0}
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to acquire the dpkg frontend lock (/var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend), are you root?
##[error]Process completed with exit code 100.

What's the best way to do this? Do I need to reach for Docker?

sudo apt-get install libxml2-utils

runwuf
– runwuf

2019-09-17 23:27:09 +00:00
Commented Sep 17, 2019 at 23:27 — runwuf
– runwuf, Commented Sep 17, 2019 at 23:27

Alexander Kjäll · Accepted Answer · 2025-02-11 08:18:40Z

468

The docs say:

The Linux and macOS virtual machines both run using passwordless sudo. When you need to execute commands or install tools that require more privileges than the current user, you can use sudo without needing to provide a password.

So simply doing the following should work:

- name: Install xmllint
  run: sudo apt install -y libxml2-utils

edited Feb 11 at 8:18

Alexander Kjäll

4,3543 gold badges36 silver badges57 bronze badges

answered Sep 19, 2019 at 2:29

rmunn

37k11 gold badges80 silver badges107 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

10 Comments

MichaelChirico Over a year ago

it would be nice if someone could offer insight on why this might be done...

Martin Liversage Over a year ago

@Mike'Pomax'Kamermans: One explanation for sudo: command not found is that you created an environment variable named PATH in your action file overriding the system path used to locate commands. Ask me how I know...

Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans Over a year ago

not in this case though - I was using act for offline testing, and act apparently uses an image that doesn't have sudo, and it's pretty nonsense (it's missing lsb-release, too, and a whoooole bunch of other things that make testing your github action basically meaningless)

030 Over a year ago

@NavidKhan Without sudo: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend - open (13: Permission denied)

user Over a year ago

If you use just this line, without having the environment set to automatically confirm the installation, it won't work. Please consider editing to add -y option to sudo apt-get install.

|

congusbongus · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-19 06:36:09Z

28

Please see this answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/73500415/2038264

cache-apt-pkgs-action can both install and cache the apt package, so your subsequent builds are fast. It is also easier to configure, just add the packages you want:

      - uses: awalsh128/cache-apt-pkgs-action@latest
        with:
          packages: dia doxygen doxygen-doc doxygen-gui doxygen-latex graphviz mscgen
          version: 1.0

answered Nov 19, 2022 at 6:36

congusbongus

15.1k8 gold badges82 silver badges105 bronze badges

3 Comments

Denis Sedchenko Over a year ago

This action is not maintained and buggy. For example, it complains that package list is empty when it's actually not.

Joren Sep 17 at 16:52

At the moment it looks like it's actively maintained. So there's a good chance that your issue has also been resolved by now.

Denis Sedchenko Sep 18 at 17:16

Happy to see that, thanks for noticing.

Sanjay Bharwani · Accepted Answer · 2024-03-05 09:12:09Z

2

The error is hinting the problem

E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend - open (13: Permission denied)

Its a permission issue. So nice and simple, run it with sudo.

Sample example below

jobs:
  test:
    name: Unit test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: ⚙️ Install lcov
        run: |
          sudo apt-get update
          sudo apt-get -y install lcov

Here the github action is installing lcov a tool to perform code coverage.

answered Mar 5, 2024 at 9:12

Sanjay Bharwani

5,20548 silver badges46 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to apt-get install in a GitHub Actions workflow?

3 Answers 3

10 Comments

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

10 Comments

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related