"TERM environment variable not set." when executing "mysql" in container

[txthai]

docker exec -it mariadb bash
mysql
produces the following error message: TERM environment variable not set.

Unsure why since echo $TERM returns dumb and issuing export TERM=dumb resolves issue.

If the environment variable is explicitly issued in the dockerfile, the error message never appears, i.e. adding ENV TERM dumb

[darkmou5e]

I have same problem. txthai, thank you for solution!

[wmariuss]

Good to know. Thanks.

[k2xl]

LOL I had this issue too, thanks for the tip.

[oskarmust]

thanks, had the same issue with postgresql container and top

[mahnunchik]

+1

[vladmiller]

_CoreOS stable (723.3.0)_ unfortunately your solution doesn't work 😫

_UPD:_ Ok, I was actually able to ssh to a container

docker run -it mariadb_container bash

and then inside set TERM variable

[iamstoick]

export TERM=dumb works great but the issue returns once you reboot or restart the VM. To make is permanent I guess you need to put export TERM=dumb in ~/.bashrc or similar files.

[wmariuss]

Or .profile

[thanh-nguyen-van]

thank you ! Nice to know that.

[hisapy]

Hey guys, try the following to get a nicer top

export TERM=xterm

[denysvitali]

Better way:
echo "export TERM=dumb" >> ~/.bashrc

Then logout and login again 👍

[anddan7]

Tried to run an image of ownCloud and ran into this exact problem. running export TERM=dumb does get rid of the error message however commands like clear and top doesn't seem to work.

Running export TERM=xterm did the trick though, anyone care to explain why?

[denysvitali]

@anddan7 http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/43945/whats-the-difference-between-various-term-variables

[zx1986]

@txthai WOW! it works perfect! thank you so much!
export TERM=dumb

[federico-razzoli]

I had the same problem after installing MariaDB 10.1 on official debian image, tag "jessie".

[federico-razzoli]

On a Debian container, when I run this:

apt-get install software-properties-common

I get a long output with these lines:

Setting up unattended-upgrades (0.83.3.2+deb8u1) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (TERM is not set, so the dialog frontend is not usable.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline

Hope this helps.

[simonmorley]

+1

[Dan-Dongcheol-Lee]

Thanks for the great tip!

[fthamura]

any idea to fix this?

[iamstoick]

@fthamura

$ echo "export TERM=dumb" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc

[lorenzop]

This in the Dockerfile works. Setting it to xterm rather than dumb also fixed the clear command.

RUN echo -e "\nexport TERM=xterm" >> ~/.bashrc

[kujiy]

+1 Thank you so much! @txthai

Why is this happened!

[amirabiri]

There is still a problem if you try to do something like:

docker exec -t db mysql < init.sql

[zburgermeiszter]

This worked for me:
https://gist.github.com/zburgermeiszter/89a41467c80327c0bb550a2c7077d747
docker exec -i CONTAINER_ID /bin/bash -c "export TERM=xterm && mysql -proot -uroot database" < import.sql

[holyorb2]

# TERM=xterm mysql

[geerlingguy]

This will be fixed in Docker 1.13, FYI: moby/moby#26461

[justindurkin]

@geerlingguy Thanks that's good news!