Installing packages from Debian unstable in a Docker image based on stable#

For Datasette #1249 I wanted to build a Docker image from the python:3.9.2-slim-buster base image (“buster” is the current stable release of Debian) but include a single package from “sid”, the unstable Debian distribution.

I needed to do this because the latest version of SpatiaLite, version 5, was available in sid but not in buster (which only has 4.3.0a):

https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=spatialite

Package libsqlite3-mod-spatialite

stretch (oldstable) (libs): Geospatial extension for SQLite - loadable module
4.3.0a-5+b1: amd64 arm64 armel armhf i386 mips mips64el mipsel ppc64el s390x
buster (stable) (libs): Geospatial extension for SQLite - loadable module
4.3.0a-5+b2: amd64 arm64 armel armhf i386 mips mips64el mipsel ppc64el s390x
bullseye (testing) (libs): Geospatial extension for SQLite - loadable module
5.0.1-2: amd64 arm64 armel armhf i386 mips64el mipsel ppc64el s390x
sid (unstable) (libs): Geospatial extension for SQLite - loadable module
5.0.1-2: alpha amd64 arm64 armel armhf hppa i386 m68k mips64el mipsel ppc64 ppc64el riscv64 s390x sh4 sparc64 x32
experimental (libs): Geospatial extension for SQLite - loadable module
5.0.0~beta0-1~exp2 [debports]: powerpcspe

The recipe that ended up working for me was to install software-properties-common to get the apt-get-repository command, then use that to install a package from sid:

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RUN apt-get update && \
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    apt-get -y --no-install-recommends install software-properties-common && \
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    add-apt-repository "deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian sid main" && \
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    apt-get update && \
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    apt-get -t sid install -y --no-install-recommends libsqlite3-mod-spatialite

Here’s the full Dockerfile I used:

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FROM python:3.9.2-slim-buster as build
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# software-properties-common provides add-apt-repository
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RUN apt-get update && \
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    apt-get -y --no-install-recommends install software-properties-common && \
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    add-apt-repository "deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian sid main" && \
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    apt-get update && \
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    apt-get -t sid install -y --no-install-recommends libsqlite3-mod-spatialite && \
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    apt clean && \
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    rm -rf /var/lib/apt && \
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    rm -rf /var/lib/dpkg
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RUN pip install datasette && \
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    find /usr/local/lib -name '__pycache__' | xargs rm -r && \
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    rm -rf /root/.cache/pip
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EXPOSE 8001
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CMD ["datasette"]