My lambda function is a NodeJS application that runs in public.ecr.aws/lambda/nodejs:18.

Here’s the gist of the app:

import { createGunzip } from 'node:zlib';
import { exec } from 'node:child_process';
import { promisify } from 'node:util';

const execAsync = promisify(exec);

export default async function handler() {
  const readStream = fs.createReadStream('test.tar.gz');
  const writeStream = fs.createWriteStream('test.tar');
  const gunzip = createGunzip();

  // Decompress .gzip file to a .tar file
  await stream.pipeline(readStream, gunzip, writeStream);

  // Now extract the .tar file contents
  await execAsync(`tar -xf 'test.tar' -C 'test'`);
}

When the application runs, it throws this error:

Error: Command failed: tar -xf /test.tar -C test

/bin/sh: tar: command not found

What are my alternatives? I couldn’t find a tar alternative in the Lambda’s image. Using an NPM dependency, like node-tar wouldn’t be ideal.