E: List directory /var/lib/apt/lists/partial is missing. - Acquire (13: Permission denied) while running apt-get command in pre/post deployment script in Azure App Service

Question

I need to run apt-get command to install dependencies for Python3-saml library for SAML authentication.

I am getting Following error:

E: List directory /var/lib/apt/lists/partial is missing. - Acquire (13: Permission denied) while running apt-get command in pre/post deployment script in Azure App Service

sudo is also not available to elevate the task. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

@Dhirendra KUMAR The Azure App Service environment is sandboxed and prevents any changes from deployment scripts to be made. If you really need a custom environment and dependencies for running your application, you should consider running your application as a custom container.

Since you are using a container, if required, you have a few other services where you can host your application as well

• Azure Container Apps
• Azure Container Instances

Answer 2

Running the apt-get install using startup command did the trick for me.

However, it is installing the dependencies every time the app starts (after deployment/change in app configuration/manual restart) and takes ~10 minutes to install all dependencies and get the application ready/accessible.

For reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1282899/how-does-startup-commands-work-on-an-azure-app-ser