bug: stable use of ASDF began failing with 13-Apr-2026 latest

[chris-braidwell]

Describe the Bug

In many Dockerfiles, we have this pattern:

RUN git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf.git $HOME/.asdf

ENV PATH="/root/.asdf/shims:/root/.asdf/bin:${PATH}"

RUN for x in $(sed -e '/^\s*#.*$/d' -e '/^\s*$/d' <.tool-versions | cut -f1 -d ' '); \
do \
    /root/.asdf/bin/asdf plugin add $x; \
    /root/.asdf/bin/asdf install $x; \
done

The error was: /root/.asdf/bin/asdf: not found

This has worked well for a long time. Yesterday it started failing, we think after #1822.

When we close a specific, older commit instead like this:

RUN git clone --no-checkout https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf.git $HOME/.asdf && \
    cd $HOME/.asdf && \
    git fetch --depth 1 origin 6a97697d3d88d6b7ad19c4bd3157679b052ab657 && \
    git checkout FETCH_HEAD

It starts working again.

Steps to Reproduce

Exact steps are shown above

Expected Behaviour

Either:

1. Preserve the original clone behavior
2. Explain how to map the old behavior to new

Actual Behaviour

Error: /root/.asdf/bin/asdf: not found

Environment

Running in `public.ecr.aws/docker/library/python:3.10.8-slim-buster`

asdf plugins affected (if relevant)

No response

[mrjones-plip]

A related downstream effect is that asdf GitHub actions using the older @v2 action version of the asdf action started failing at the same time for the same reason as cited in this ticket. The fix implemented in @v4 of the action (and possibly @v3) is to pin to a specific release instead of master.

For this ticket's use case of docker, I strongly recommend to same pinning solution. This way you can test a new asdf version before it breaks your workflow.

An immediate fix to your Dockerfile would be to pin to the latest release (v0.18.1) which still has ./bin/asdf in it and not use master which doesn't have ./bin/asdf. Note the added --branch v0.18.1 flag on the first RUN line:

RUN git clone --depth 1 --branch v0.18.1 https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf.git $HOME/.asdf

ENV PATH="/root/.asdf/shims:/root/.asdf/bin:${PATH}"

RUN for x in $(sed -e '/^\s*#.*$/d' -e '/^\s*$/d' <.tool-versions | cut -f1 -d ' '); \
do \
    /root/.asdf/bin/asdf plugin add $x; \
    /root/.asdf/bin/asdf install $x; \
done

Update: Sorry! I see you already solved this by pinning to a hash which worked as well. You can save 2 lines of code by specifying the hash/version on the initial clone if you'd like ;0