Using Ubuntu 19.10 using standard GNOME terminal.

I have build a docker image with nvm using the following dockerfile (its going to be a npm diagnostic/debug command line container so not application):

FROM ubuntu:19.10

RUN rm /bin/sh && ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get -y dist-upgrade && \
    apt-get -y autoremove && \
    apt-get clean

RUN apt-get install -y \
    curl \
    nano \
    git 

ARG NODE_VERSION='12.0.0'
ARG NVM_DIR=/root
ARG NVM_VERSION='v0.35.3'

RUN curl -o- "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/$NVM_VERSION/install.sh" | bash \
    && source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh \
    && nvm install $NODE_VERSION

I have build an image and pushed it to an image registry and started it in k8s. I have the accessed the running container with:

kubectl exec my-app-xx25 -it bash

But when inside the container I cannot start e.g. nano:

root@my-app-xx25:/# nano
Error opening terminal: unknown.

or reset the terminal for that sake:

root@my-app-xx25:/# reset
reset: unknown terminal type unknown

vi/vim works though.

Based on:

https://github.com/moby/moby/issues/9299

If I do:

kubectl exec my-app-xx25 -it -- bash -c "export TERM=xterm && bash"

I can start nano just fine but seems like a messy workaround.

Notice if I run it locally with docker it works fine (starting nano, reset etc):

docker run -it my-image /bin/bash

Any suggestions to what goes on and why I need to pass export TERM=xterm when running kubectl exec and not when running docker run (locally)?