Why docker exec doesn't return? - docker

I am executing the command docker exec for example:
docker exec reverse ls
The first time, it works. Then, it displays the result, but wait indefinitely. I don't understand why.
The entrypoint of the container's image is:
ENTRYPOINT service ssh restart && service nginx && /bin/bash

Hm... That's probably because your ENTRYPOINT is a little bit anti-pattern.
Normally, one Docker container will only handle one thing which calls PID=1, but you give it three things to do and especially service nginx. It might cause the container running unexpectedly.
Your command actually is:
service ssh restart && service nginx && /bin/bash ls
Look, it's wired. But there are some tips to check if you really running that container.
a) Remove your ENTRYPOINT on Dockerifle first.
b) Running a container with only /bin/bash CMD
c) docker exec -it [CONTAINER_ID] /bin/bash to enter the container and run the commands to verify if works.
Hope it helps you.

Related

Docker container is not running even if -d

I'm french and new here (so I don't know how stack overflow works, his community) I'm gonna try to adapt myself.
So, my first problem is the following :
I run docker container with my image who it created with Dockerfile. (there is DNS container)
In Dockerfile, this container have to start script.sh when it start.
But after use that :
docker run -d -ti -p 53:53 alex/dns
(Use -p 53:53 because DNS.)
I can see my DNS runing at the end of my script.sh but, when I do :
Docker ps -a ; but > container is not running.
I'm novice with docker. I have started to learn it 2days ago.
I tried to add (one by one of course):
CMD ["bash"]
CMD ["/bin/bash"]
to run bash and make sure that does not poweroff.
I tried to add -d in Docker run command
I tried to use :
docker commit ti alex/dns
and
docker exec -ti alex/dns /bin/bsh
My dockerfile file :
FROM debian
...
RUN apt-get install bind9
...
ADD script.sh /usr/bin/script.sh
...
ENTRYPOINT ["/bin/bash", "script.sh]
CMD ["/bin/bash"]
My file script.sh :
service bind9 stop
*It copy en remplace conf file for bind9*
service bind9 restart
I hope that there are not too many mistakes and that I managed to make myself understood
I expect the DNS container stay runing and can use it with docker exec.
But now, after use docker run, the container start en stop juste after my script finish. Yes, the DNS server is runing the container tell me before close [ok] Bind9 running or somthing like that. But after container stop.
I suspect the problem you're facing is that your container will terminate once service bind9 restart completes.
You need to have a foreground process running to keep the container running.
I'm unfamiliar with bind9 but I recommend you explore ways to run bind9 in the foreground in your container.
Your command to run the container is correct:
docker run -d -ti -p 53:53 alex/dns
You may need to:
RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install bind9
You will likely need something like (don't know):
ENTRYPOINT ["/bind9"]
Googled it ;-)
https://manpages.debian.org/jessie/bind9/named.8.en.html
After you've configured it, you can run it as a foreground process:
ENTRYPOINT ["named","-g"]

I typed docker run ubuntu, now what?

I know, I know, I should have typed
docker run -it ubuntu bash
But the fact remains, a container has been created, it is there, and it is stopped. It stops as soon as it is started, so there's no way to attach or exec in it.
Is it really the case that there's is absolutely no way to change it's state so that bash is started instead ? This seems to be kind of a showstopper to me. Or maybe there's something I didn't get about the marvelous possibilities of docker that would make such a thing complicated to do ? I doubt that.
Why is it that way ?
Keep in mind two things:
1st: a container is up and running as long as its main process is up and running.
2nd: ubuntu has a default command: CMD ["/bin/bash"]. When you use docker run ubuntu bash, you overwrite it to CMD ["bash"]. No big difference.
Why docker run ubuntu fails:
Because bash simply exits. Remember, bash is the default command.
Why docker run -it ubuntu succeeds:
Because -t makes bash keep running. From docker run --help:
-t, --tty Allocate a pseudo-TTY
Also, you mention:
But the fact remains, a container has been created, it is there, and it is stopped. It stops as soon as it is started, so there's no way to attach or exec in it.
Containers can be better considered as processes and this is why you should see them as something ephemeral. If it happens to run a container with the wrong configuration (exiting right after start), remove it and spin up a new one, this time with the correct parameters.
when you run image like ubuntu you have to give it a command or process to keep it started. In my case when I use ubuntu image for tests (principally), I write docker run --name myubuntu -d ubuntu:16.04 sleep 3000
you can verify if it runing with a docker ps.
After this you can go inside with docker exec -it myubuntu /bin/bash

Keeping alive Docker containers with supervisord

I end my Debian Dockerfile with these lines:
EXPOSE 80 22
COPY etc/supervisor/conf.d /etc/supervisor/conf.d
CMD ["/usr/bin/supervisord", "-c", "/etc/supervisor/supervisord.conf"]
In /etc/supervisor/conf.d/start.conf file:
[program:ssh]
command=/usr/sbin/service ssh restart
[program:nginx]
command=/usr/sbin/nginx -g 'daemon off;'
[program:systemctl]
command=/bin/systemctl daemon-reload
[program:systemctl]
command=/bin/systemctl start php7-fpm.service
If I try to run this Docker image with the following command:
$ docker run -d -p 8080:80 -p 8081:22 lanti/debian
It's immediately stops running. if I try to run it on the foreground:
$ docker run -it -v /home/core/share:/root/share -p 8080:80 -p 8081:22 lanti/debian
It's the same, immediate exit. If I run with bash CMD:
$ docker run --rm -it -v /home/core/share:/root/share -p 8080:80 -p 8081:22 lanti/debian bash
It stays active in the console, but the predefined commands by supervisor not run, so I need to run $ service supervisor restart inside the container, otherwise Nginx and SSH won't be started.
How I can start a docker container with multiple commands run at startup? In the past I used ExecStartPost lines in a systemd file under the host OS, but becouse of that, the systemd file became complex so I try to move the pre-start commands into the container, to run automatically at any type of startup.
This docker container will have nginx, php, ssh, phpmyadmin and mysql in the future. I don't want multiple containers.
Thank You for your help!
Lets preface this by saying running the kitchen sink in a docker container is not a best practice. Docker is not a virtual machine.
That said, a few problems.
just like the processes that supervisor controls, supervisor itself should NOT daemonize. Add -n
I'm not entirely sure why you expect, need, or want to have systemd and supervisor running. Most docker containers do not have a functioning init system. Why not just user supervisor for everything? Unless docker has significantly changed in the last couple versions, systemd inside the container will not work like you think it should.

Docker container will automatically stop after "docker run -d"

According to tutorial I read so far, use "docker run -d" will start a container from image, and the container will run in background. This is how it looks like, we can see we already have container id.
root#docker:/home/root# docker run -d centos
605e3928cdddb844526bab691af51d0c9262e0a1fc3d41de3f59be1a58e1bd1d
But if I ran "docker ps", nothing was returned.
So I tried "docker ps -a", I can see container already exited:
root#docker:/home/root# docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
605e3928cddd centos:latest "/bin/bash" 31 minutes ago Exited (0) 31 minutes ago kickass_swartz
Anything I did wrong? How can I troubleshoot this issue?
The centos dockerfile has a default command bash.
That means, when run in background (-d), the shell exits immediately.
Update 2017
More recent versions of docker authorize to run a container both in detached mode and in foreground mode (-t, -i or -it)
In that case, you don't need any additional command and this is enough:
docker run -t -d centos
The bash will wait in the background.
That was initially reported in kalyani-chaudhari's answer and detailed in jersey bean's answer.
vonc#voncvb:~$ d ps -a
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
4a50fd9e9189 centos "/bin/bash" 8 seconds ago Up 2 seconds wonderful_wright
Note that for alpine, Marinos An reports in the comments:
docker run -t -d alpine/git does not keep the process up.
Had to do: docker run --entrypoint "/bin/sh" -it alpine/git
Original answer (2015)
As mentioned in this article:
Instead of running with docker run -i -t image your-command, using -d is recommended because you can run your container with just one command and you don’t need to detach terminal of container by hitting Ctrl + P + Q.
However, there is a problem with -d option. Your container immediately stops unless the commands keep running in foreground.
Docker requires your command to keep running in the foreground. Otherwise, it thinks that your applications stops and shutdown the container.
The problem is that some application does not run in the foreground. How can we make it easier?
In this situation, you can add tail -f /dev/null to your command.
By doing this, even if your main command runs in the background, your container doesn’t stop because tail is keep running in the foreground.
So this would work:
docker run -d centos tail -f /dev/null
Or in Dockerfile:
ENTRYPOINT ["tail"]
CMD ["-f","/dev/null"]
A docker ps would show the centos container still running.
From there, you can attach to it or detach from it (or docker exec some commands).
According to this answer, adding the -t flag will prevent the container from exiting when running in the background. You can then use docker exec -i -t <image> /bin/bash to get into a shell prompt.
docker run -t -d <image> <command>
It seems that the -t option isn't documented very well, though the help says that it "allocates a pseudo-TTY."
Background
A Docker container runs a process (the "command" or "entrypoint") that keeps it alive. The container will continue to run as long as the command continues to run.
In your case, the command (/bin/bash, by default, on centos:latest) is exiting immediately (as bash does when it's not connected to a terminal and has nothing to run).
Normally, when you run a container in daemon mode (with -d), the container is running some sort of daemon process (like httpd). In this case, as long as the httpd daemon is running, the container will remain alive.
What you appear to be trying to do is to keep the container alive without a daemon process running inside the container. This is somewhat strange (because the container isn't doing anything useful until you interact with it, perhaps with docker exec), but there are certain cases where it might make sense to do something like this.
(Did you mean to get to a bash prompt inside the container? That's easy! docker run -it centos:latest)
Solution
A simple way to keep a container alive in daemon mode indefinitely is to run sleep infinity as the container's command. This does not rely doing strange things like allocating a TTY in daemon mode. Although it does rely on doing strange things like using sleep as your primary command.
$ docker run -d centos:latest sleep infinity
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
d651c7a9e0ad centos:latest "sleep infinity" 2 seconds ago Up 2 seconds nervous_visvesvaraya
Alternative Solution
As indicated by cjsimon, the -t option allocates a "pseudo-tty". This tricks bash into continuing to run indefinitely because it thinks it is connected to an interactive TTY (even though you have no way to interact with that particular TTY if you don't pass -i). Anyway, this should do the trick too:
$ docker run -t -d centos:latest
Not 100% sure whether -t will produce other weird interactions; maybe leave a comment below if it does.
Hi this issue is because docker containers exit if there is no running application in the container.
-d
option is just to run a container in deamon mode.
So the trick to make your container continuously running is point to a shell file in docker which will keep your application running.You can try with a start.sh file
Eg: docker run -d centos sh /yourlocation/start.sh
This start.sh should point to a never ending application.
In case if you dont want any application to be running,you can install monit which will keep your docker container running.
Please let us know if these two cases worked for you to keep your container running.
All the best
You can accomplish what you want with either:
docker run -t -d <image-name>
or
docker run -i -d <image-name>
or
docker run -it -d <image-name>
The command parameter as suggested by other answers (i.e. tail -f /dev/null) is completely optional, and is NOT required to get your container to stay running in the background.
Also note the Docker documentation suggests that combining -i and -t options will cause it to behave like a shell.
See:
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/run/#foreground
I have this code snippet run from the ENTRYPOINT in my docker file:
while true
do
echo "Press [CTRL+C] to stop.."
sleep 1
done
Run the built docker image as:
docker run -td <image name>
Log in to the container shell:
docker exec -it <container id> /bin/bash
execute command as follows :
docker run -t -d <image-name>
if you want to specify port then command as below:
docker run -t -d -p <port-no> <image-name>
verify the running container using following command:
docker ps
Docker container exits if task inside is done, so if you want to keep it alive even if it does not have any job or already finished them, you can do docker run -di image. After you do docker container ls you will see it running.
Docker requires your command to keep running in the foreground. Otherwise, it thinks that your applications stops and shutdown the container.
So if your docker entry script is a background process like following:
/usr/local/bin/confd -interval=30 -backend etcd -node $CONFIG_CENTER &
The '&' makes the container stop and exit if there are no other foreground process triggered later.
So the solution is just remove the '&' or have another foreground CMD running after it, such as
tail -f server.log
If you are using CMD at the end of your Dockerfile, what you can do is adding the code at the end. This will only work if your docker is built on ubuntu, or any OS that can use bash.
&& /bin/bash
Briefly the end of your Dockerfile will look like something like this.
...
CMD ls && ... && /bin/bash
So if you have anything running automatically after you run your docker image, and when the task is complete the bash terminal will be active inside your docker. Thereby, you can enter you shell commands.
Maybe it is just me but on CentOS 7.3.1611 and Docker 1.12.6 but I ended up having to use a combination of the answers posted by #VonC & #Christopher Simon to get this working reliably. Nothing I did before this would stop the container from exiting after it ran CMD successfully. I am starting oracle-xe-11Gr2 and sshd.
Dockerfile
...
RUN ssh-keygen -t rsa -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key -N '' && systemctl enable sshd
...
CMD /etc/init.d/oracle-xe start && /sbin/sshd && tail -f /dev/null
Then adding -d -t and -i to run
docker run --shm-size=2g --name oracle-db -d -t -i -p 5022:22 -p 5080:8080 -p 1521:1521 centos-oracle:7.3.1611
Finally after hours of bashing my head against the wall
ssh -v root#127.0.0.1 -p 5022
...
root#127.0.0.1's password:
debug1: Authentication succeeded (password).
For whatever reason the above will exit after executing CMD if the tail -f is removed, or any of the -t -d -i options are omitted.
I had the same issue, just opening another terminal with a bash on it worked for me :
create container:
docker run -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-CTP3.0-ubuntu
containerid=52bbc9b30557
start container:
docker start 52bbc9b30557
start bash to keep container running:
docker exec -it 52bbc9b30557 bash
start process you need:
docker exec -it 52bbc9b30557 /path_to_cool_your_app
Running docker with interactive mode might solve the issue.
Here is the example for running image with and without interactive mode
chaitra#RSK-IND-BLR-L06:~/dockers$ sudo docker run -d -t -i test_again1.0
b6b9a942a79b1243bada59db19c7999cfff52d0a8744542fa843c95354966a18
chaitra#RSK-IND-BLR-L06:~/dockers$ sudo docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
chaitra#RSK-IND-BLR-L06:~/dockers$ sudo docker run -d -t -i test_again1.0 bash
c3d6a9529fd70c5b2dc2d7e90fe662d19c6dad8549e9c812fb2b7ce2105d7ff5
chaitra#RSK-IND-BLR-L06:~/dockers$ sudo docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
c3d6a9529fd7 test_again1.0 "bash" 2 seconds ago Up 1 second awesome_haibt
You can simply use:
docker container run -d -it <container name or id> /bin/bash
I have explained it in the following post that has the same question.
How to retain docker alpine container after "exit" is used?
I was also facing the same problem but in a different manner. When I create the docker containers. it automatically stops the unused containers which are just running in the background. Sometimes it also stops the containers that are in the use.
In my situation, this is because of the permission of the docker.sock files it earlier has.
what you have to do is :-
Install docker again.(As i work on ubuntu i install it from here)
Run the command to change the permissions.
sudo chmod 666 /var/run/docker.sock
Install docker-compose (this is optional as I have compose file to create many containers together)
sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.26.0/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
check for the version to ensure that I have the latest one and not get problem with some deprications.
Then I run the docker container build.
Argument order matters
Jersey Beans answer (all 3 examples) worked for me. After quite a bit of trial and error I realized that the order of the arguments matter.
Keeps the container running in the background:
docker run -t -d <image-name>
Keeps the container running in the foreground: docker run <image-name> -t -d
It wasn't obvious to me coming from a Powershell background.
if you want to operate on the container, you need to run it in foreground to keep it alive.
There are multiple options out there to run the container in foreground/detached state. But if you still feel the issue is not resolved, you can try troubleshooting the issue by viewing the logs.
sudo docker logs -f >> container.log
additionally you can also use --details to show extra details provided to logs.
Incorrect Path to App in Dockerfile:
I was migrating an application from a RHEL server to a Docker container using Alpine Linux.
No errors during the build, so I was surprised to see the container immediately exit!
First port of call:
docker logs <containerID>
This revealed the path of the binary I had supplied to CMD in the Dockerfile was bogus:
line 0: /sbin/postfix: not found
Well that told me how things were broken, but not specifically where: I still required the correct path for the binary in Alpine Linux...
Troubleshooting:
Googling didn't reveal the correct path to it, so I added the following line to my Dockerfile:
RUN which postfix
I then reviewed my build logging- provided by the below command appended to my build command- to retrieve the value of RUN which postfix
--progress=plain > /path/to/build.log 2>&1
The Fix:
I deleted this test build, supplied the correct path- /usr/sbin/postfix - to CMD in the Dockerfile, deleted RUN which postfix and ran another build.
Voila; the process now remained up.
So a duff path was causing the container to immediately exit...
These 4 commands all work to keep your docker container running:
docker run -td centos
docker run -dt centos
docker run -t -d centos
docker run -d -t centos
Firstly, You need to check if any container is running
Type command,
docker ps -all
If any container is running then stop them
Type command,
docker stop Container Id
Now, Finally run the docker by using below command..........
docker run -t -p 2020:3000 dockerImageName
Hence, Open your google chrome and visit on localhost:2020
Congrats :)

Is it possible to start a shell session in a running container (without ssh)

I was naively expecting this command to run a bash shell in a running container :
docker run "id of running container" /bin/bash
it looks like it's not possible, I get the error :
2013/07/27 20:00:24 Internal server error: 404 trying to fetch remote history for 27d757283842
So, if I want to run bash shell in a running container (ex. for diagnosis purposes)
do I have to run an SSH server in it and loggin via ssh ?
With docker 1.3, there is a new command docker exec. This allows you to enter a running docker:
docker exec -it "id of running container" bash
EDIT: Now you can use docker exec -it "id of running container" bash (doc)
Previously, the answer to this question was:
If you really must and you are in a debug environment, you can do this: sudo lxc-attach -n <ID>
Note that the id needs to be the full one (docker ps -notrunc).
However, I strongly recommend against this.
notice: -notrunc is deprecated, it will be replaced by --no-trunc soon.
Just do
docker attach container_name
As mentioned in the comments, to detach from the container without stopping it, type Ctrlpthen Ctrlq.
Since things are achanging, at the moment the recommended way of accessing a running container is using nsenter.
You can find more information on this github repository. But in general you can use nsenter like this:
PID=$(docker inspect --format {{.State.Pid}} <container_name_or_ID>)
nsenter --target $PID --mount --uts --ipc --net --pid
or you can use the wrapper docker-enter:
docker-enter <container_name_or_ID>
A nice explanation on the topic can be found on Jérôme Petazzoni's blog entry:
Why you don't need to run sshd in your docker containers
First thing you cannot run
docker run "existing container" command
Because this command is expecting an image and not a container and it would anyway result in a new container being spawned (so not the one you wanted to look at)
I agree with the fact that with docker we should push ourselves to think in a different way (so you should find ways so that you don't need to log onto the container), but I still find it useful and this is how I work around it.
I run my commands through supervisor in DEAMON mode.
Then I execute what I call docker_loop.sh
The content is pretty much this:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/supervisord
/usr/bin/supervisorctl
while ( true )
do
echo "Detach with Ctrl-p Ctrl-q. Dropping to shell"
sleep 1
/bin/bash
done
What it does is that it allows you to "attach" to the container and be presented with the supervisorctl interface to stop/start/restart and check logs.
If that should not suffice, you can Ctrl+D and you will drop into a shell that will allow you to have a peek around as if it was a normal system.
PLEASE DO ALSO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT that this system is not as secure as having the container without a shell, so take all the necessary steps to secure your container.
Keep an eye on this pull request: https://github.com/docker/docker/pull/7409
Which implements the forthcoming docker exec <container_id> <command> utility. When this is available it should be possible to e.g. start and stop the ssh service inside a running container.
There is also nsinit to do this: "nsinit provides a handy way to access a shell inside a running container's namespace", but it looks difficult to get running.
https://gist.github.com/ubergarm/ed42ebbea293350c30a6
You can use
docker exec -it <container_name> bash
Here's my solution
In the Dockerfile:
# ...
RUN mkdir -p /opt
ADD initd.sh /opt/
RUN chmod +x /opt/initd.sh
ENTRYPOINT ["/opt/initd.sh"]
In the initd.sh file
#!/bin/bash
...
/etc/init.d/gearman-job-server start
/etc/init.d/supervisor start
#very important!!!
/bin/bash
After image is built you have two options using exec or attach:
Use exec (preferred) and run:
docker run --name $CONTAINER_NAME -dt $IMAGE_NAME
then
docker exec -it $CONTAINER_NAME /bin/bash
and use CTRL + D to detach
Use attach and run:
docker run --name $CONTAINER_NAME -dit $IMAGE_NAME
then
docker attach $CONTAINER_NAME
and use CTRL + P and CTRL + Q to detach
Note: The difference between options is in parameter -i
There is actually a way to have a shell in the container.
Assume your /root/run.sh launches the process, process manager (supervisor), or whatever.
Create /root/runme.sh with some gnu-screen tricks:
# Spawn a screen with two tabs
screen -AdmS 'main' /root/run.sh
screen -S 'main' -X screen bash -l
screen -r 'main'
Now, you have your daemons in tab 0, and an interactive shell in tab 1. docker attach at any time to see what's happening inside the container.
Another advice is to create a "development bundle" image on top of the production image with all the necessary tools, including this screen trick.
There are two ways.
With attach
$ sudo docker attach 665b4a1e17b6 #by ID
With exec
$ sudo docker exec - -t 665b4a1e17b6 #by ID
If the goal is to check on the application's logs, this post shows starting up tomcat and tailing the log as part of CMD. The tomcat log is available on the host using 'docker logs containerid'.
http://blog.trifork.com/2013/08/15/using-docker-to-efficiently-create-multiple-tomcat-instances/
It's useful assign name when running container. You don't need refer container_id.
docker run --name container_name yourimage
docker exec -it container_name bash
first, get the container id of the desired container by
docker ps
you will get something like this:
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
3ac548b6b315 frontend_react-web "npm run start" 48 seconds ago Up 47 seconds 0.0.0.0:3000->3000/tcp frontend_react-web_1
now copy this container id and run the following command:
docker exec -it container_id sh
docker exec -it 3ac548b6b315 sh
Maybe you were mislead like myself into thinking in terms of VMs when developing containers. My advice: Try not to.
Containers are just like any other process. Indeed you might want to "attach" to them for debugging purposes (think of /proc//env or strace -p ) but that's a very special case.
Normally you just "run" the process, so if you want to modify the configuration or read the logs, just create a new container and make sure you write the logs outside of it by sharing directories, writing to stdout (so docker logs works) or something like that.
For debugging purposes you might want to start a shell, then your code, then press CTRL-p + CTRL-q to leave the shell intact. This way you can reattach using:
docker attach <container_id>
If you want to debug the container because it's doing something you haven't expect it to do, try to debug it: https://serverfault.com/questions/596994/how-can-i-debug-a-docker-container-initialization
No. This is not possible. Use something like supervisord to get an ssh server if that's needed. Although, I definitely question the need.

Resources