hadolint/DL3045

COPY to a relative destination without WORKDIR set.

Property	Value
Severity	Warning
Category	Best Practice
Default	Enabled
Auto-fix	Yes (suggestion `--fix-unsafe`; safe with `--slow-checks`)

Description

While copying to a relative path is not problematic per se, errors happen when changes are introduced to the WORKDIR without updating the destination of the COPY command. It is assumed that when a WORKDIR is set, the programmer will make sure it works well together with the COPY destinations.

Examples

Problematic code

FROM scratch
COPY foo bar

Correct code

FROM scratch
COPY foo /bar

or:

FROM scratch
WORKDIR /
COPY foo bar

Auto-fix

Inserts an explicit WORKDIR instruction before the first COPY with a relative destination.

Fast path (no registry access): suggests WORKDIR /app as a conventional default (FixSuggestion, requires --fix-unsafe).
With --slow-checks: resolves the base image’s actual WORKDIR from the registry and uses that value (FixSafe, applied with --fix).

# Before
FROM python:3.12
COPY requirements.txt .

# After (with --fix-unsafe, fast path)
FROM python:3.12
WORKDIR /app
COPY requirements.txt .

# After (with --fix --slow-checks, base image has WORKDIR /usr/src/app)
FROM python:3.12
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY requirements.txt .

Reference

hadolint/DL3045

​Description

​Examples

​Problematic code

​Correct code

​Auto-fix

​Reference