Error response from daemon: invalid mount config for type "bind": invalid mount path: mount path must be absolute

Common causes

• Using a relative path (./data, ../config) in a docker run -v flag instead of an absolute path
• A docker-compose.yml using relative paths that was copied directly into a docker run command
• A typo or missing / at the start of the host path
• An environment variable expansion that produces a relative path

How to fix it

1. Use an absolute path: docker run -v /home/user/myproject/data:/app/data myimage
2. Use the shell expansion for the current directory: docker run -v $(pwd)/data:/app/data myimage
3. In Docker Compose, relative paths work fine — use ./ prefix and Compose expands them
4. Use a named volume instead of a bind mount if you don't need to map a specific host directory: docker run -v mydata:/app/data myimage

Example

Relative path ./data used in docker run -v — Docker requires an absolute path here