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what is docker run -it flag?
(3 answers)
Closed 22 days ago.
When executing this command, I can't just leave out neither i nor t to get the bash to work.
sudo docker exec -it 69e937450dab bash
What does it exactly do? When do I need the command without these parameters?
The flags -i and -t are required to run an interactive shell session in the container:
-i makes the session interactive by keeping STDIN open even if not attached
-t allocates a pseudo-TTY, allowing you to interact with the container using a terminal
I will answer it myself:
Normal execution without any flags:
[ec2-user#ip-172-31-109-14 ~]$ sudo docker exec 69e937450dab ls
bin
boot
dev
docker-entrypoint.d
docker-entrypoint.sh
etc
If your command needs an input like cat, you can try:
[ec2-user#ip-172-31-109-14 ~]$ echo test | sudo docker exec 69e937450dab cat
Nothing will show, because there is no input stream going to the docker container. This can be achieved with the -i flag.
[ec2-user#ip-172-31-109-14 ~]$ echo test | sudo docker exec -i 69e937450dab cat
test
Now, let us suppose, you want the bash to start as process:
sudo docker exec 69e937450dab bash
You will see nothing, because the process started in the container. Adding the flag will do the deal:
[ec2-user#ip-172-31-109-14 ~]$ sudo docker exec -t 69e937450dab bash
root#69e937450dab:/#
But this does not really help, because we need an input stream, which takes our commands and can be received by the bash. Therefore, we need to combine the two:
[ec2-user#ip-172-31-109-14 ~]$ sudo docker exec -i -t 69e937450dab bash
root#69e937450dab:/# ls
bin boot dev docker-entrypoint.d docker-entrypoint.sh etc hi home lib lib64 media mnt opt proc root run sbin srv sys tmp usr var
root#69e937450dab:/#
small recap:
-t for attaching the bash process to our terminal
-i for being able to send inputs via STDIN for example with the keyboard to the bash in the container
Without -i can be used for commands, that don't need inputs. Without -t and bash can be used, when you just want to use one command.
Any commands hang terminal inside docker container.
I login in container with docker exec -t php-zts /bin/bash
And then print any elementary command (date, ls, cd /, etc.)
Command hang
When I press ctrl+c I going back to host machine.
But, if I run any command without container - it's work normally
docker exec -t php-zts date
Wed Jan 26 00:04:38 UTC 2022
tty is enabled in docker-compose.yml
docker system prune and all cleanups can not help me.
I can't identify the problem and smashed my brain. Please help :(
The solution is to use the flag -i/--interactive with docker run. Here is a relevant section of the documentation:
--interactive , -i Keep STDIN open even if not attached
You can try to run your container using -i for interactive and -t for tty which will allow you to navigate and execute commands inside the container
docker run -it --rm alpine
In the other hand you can run the container with docker run then execute commands inside that container like so:
tail -f /dev/null will keep your container running.
-d will run the command in the background.
docker run --rm -d --name container1 alpine tail -f /dev/null
or
docker run --rm -itd --name container1 alpine sh # You can use -id or -td or -itd
This will allow you to run commands from inside the container.
you can choose sh, bash, or any other shell you prefer.
docker exec -it container1 alpine sh
I am confused about these three commands, I don't know the difference among them. Sorry, I am new to docker.
I can not see the difference from the result.Could anybody tell me the difference?
docker run -it IMAGE_NAME /bin/bash
docker run -i IMAGE_NAME /bin/bash
docker run -i IMAGE_NAME
From the docker documentation
-t : Allocate a pseudo-tty
-i : Keep STDIN open even if not attached
For interactive processes (like a shell), you must use -i -t together in order to allocate a tty for the container process.
docker run -i imagename /bin/bash
This will attach a shell to the container. You can run any shell command on the shell.
docker run -i imagename
This will dump the stdout on the terminal. Similar to docker run but with ability to take input from pipe.
Docker run command has some parameters to run command in Detached or Foreground mode.
-i and -t falls under Foreground mode.
-i : Keep STDIN open even if not attached
-t : Allocate a pseudo-tty
In case of -i whenever you run docker container command passed to it will be fired. in your case "/bin/bash"
Note from Doc
For interactive processes (like a shell), you must use -i -t together
in order to allocate a tty for the container process. -i -t is often
written -it as you’ll see in later examples. Specifying -t is
forbidden when the client is receiving its standard input from a pipe,
as in:
More Detail Here
docker run -it IMAGE_NAME /bin/bash --> you will be able to enter into container if you use -i(interactive) option (which is for executing any commands in the container) and -t(tty) which gives you the terminal to enter any command, /bin/bash is the type of linux shell (eg. sh,ksh,bash etc.)
I would like to know why docker -i -t -d centos /bin/bash makes a container run in background while docker -d centos /bin/bash make a container go to exit state
Hey guys, I am trying to understand why -i -t makes a container stay in active state. I would have thought that -d would have been enough in above scenario.
$ docker run -d --name mycentos3 centos
0bebdb11f3796bf5ac1ee9b0f132c3b3a4fcc2390f77aa971e6700d025025ebb
docker run -i -t -d --name mycentos4 centos
2be599d7310677c53c6f1dd1b5c70106f4c33f3193aad466ca34f0855173e559
docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
2be599d73106 centos "/bin/bash" Less than a second ago Up 1 second mycentos4
Bash is an interactive prompt. It consumes input from STDIN.
-i is necessary in order for Docker to keep a STDIN open. Without it: bash would reach the end of input and terminate.
-d is not related to your problem.
-t is not responsible for bash's exiting, but it's good to use -t for interactive prompts like bash, so that Docker provides a pseudo-TTY into which bash can write prompts (e.g. your PS1) and control sequences (e.g. colour).
I created a container with -d so it's not interactive.
docker run -d shykes/pybuilder bin/bash
I see that the container has exited:
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
d6c45e8cc5f0 shykes/pybuilder:latest "bin/bash" 41 minutes ago Exited (0) 2 seconds ago clever_bardeen
Now I would like to run occasional commands on the machine and exit. Just to get the response.
I tried to start the machine. I tried attaching. I thought I could call run with a container, but that does not seem to be allowed. Using start just seems to run and then exist quickly.
I'd like to get back into interactive mode after exiting.
I tried:
docker attach d6c45e8cc5f0
But I get:
2014/10/01 22:33:34 You cannot attach to a stopped container, start it first
But if I start it, it exits anyway. Catch 22. I can't win.
In October 2014 the Docker team introduced docker exec command: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/exec/
So now you can run any command in a running container just knowing its ID (or name):
docker exec -it <container_id_or_name> echo "Hello from container!"
Note that exec command works only on already running container. If the container is currently stopped, you need to first run it with the following command:
docker run -it -d shykes/pybuilder /bin/bash
The most important thing here is the -d option, which stands for detached. It means that the command you initially provided to the container (/bin/bash) will be run in the background and the container will not stop immediately.
Your container will exit as the command you gave it will end. Use the following options to keep it live:
-i Keep STDIN open even if not attached.
-t Allocate a pseudo-TTY.
So your new run command is:
docker run -it -d shykes/pybuilder bin/bash
If you would like to attach to an already running container:
docker exec -it CONTAINER_ID /bin/bash
In these examples /bin/bash is used as the command.
So I think the answer is simpler than many misleading answers above.
To start an existing container which is stopped
docker start <container-name/ID>
To stop a running container
docker stop <container-name/ID>
Then to login to the interactive shell of a container
docker exec -it <container-name/ID> bash
To start an existing container and attach to it in one command
docker start -ai <container-name/ID>
Beware, this will stop the container on exit. But in general, you need to start the container, attach and stop it after you are done.
To expand on katrmr's answer, if the container is stopped and can't be started due to an error, you'll need to commit it to an image. Then you can launch bash in the new image:
docker commit [CONTAINER_ID] temporary_image
docker run --entrypoint=bash -it temporary_image
Some of the answers here are misleading because they concern containers that are running, not stopped.
Sven Dowideit explained on the Docker forum that containers are bound to their process (and Docker can't change the process of a stopped container, seemingly due at least to its internal structure: https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/1437). So, basically the only option is to commit the container to an image and run it with a different command.
See https://forums.docker.com/t/run-command-in-stopped-container/343
(I believe the "ENTRYPOINT with arguments" approach wouldn't work either, since you still wouldn't be able to change the arguments to a stopped container.)
I had to use bash -c to run my command:
docker exec -it CONTAINER_ID bash -c "mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql mysql"
Creating a container and sending commands to it, one by one:
docker create --name=my_new_container -it ubuntu
docker start my_new_container
// ps -a says 'Up X seconds'
docker exec my_new_container /path/to/my/command
// ps -a still says 'Up X+Y seconds'
docker exec my_new_container /path/to/another/command
If you are trying to run shell script, you need run it as bash.
docker exec -it containerid bash -c /path/to/your/script.sh
This is a combined answer I made up using the CDR LDN answer above and the answer I found here.
The following example starts an Arch Linux container from an image, and then installs git on that container using the pacman tool:
sudo docker run -it -d archlinux /bin/bash
sudo docker ps -l
sudo docker exec -it [container_ID] script /dev/null -c "pacman -S git --noconfirm"
That is all.
Pipe a command to docker exec bash stdin
Must remove the -t for it to work:
echo 'touch myfile' | docker exec -i CONTAINER_NAME bash
This can be more convenient that using CLI options sometimes.
Tested with:
docker run --name ub16 -it ubuntu:16.04 bash
then on another shell:
echo 'touch myfile' | docker exec -i ub16 bash
Then on first shell:
ls -l myfile
Tested on Docker 1.13.1, Ubuntu 16.04 host.
I would like to note that the top answer is a little misleading.
The issue with executing docker run is that a new container is created every time. However, there are cases where we would like to revisit old containers or not take up space with new containers.
(Given clever_bardeen is the name of the container created...)
In OP's case, make sure the docker image is first running by executing the following command:
docker start clever_bardeen
Then, execute the docker container using the following command:
docker exec -it clever_bardeen /bin/bash
I usually use this:
docker exec -it my-container-name bash
to continuously interact with a running container.
Assuming the image is using the default entrypoint /bin/sh -c, running /bin/bash will exit immediately in daemon mode (-d). If you want this container to run an interactive shell, use -it instead of -d. If you want to execute arbitrary commands in a container usually executing another process, you might want to try nsenter or nsinit. Have a look at https://blog.codecentric.de/en/2014/07/enter-docker-container/ for the details.
Unfortunately it is impossible to override ENTRYPOINT with arguments with docker run --entrypoint to achieve this goal.
Note: you can override the ENTRYPOINT setting using --entrypoint, but
this can only set the binary to exec (no sh -c will be used).
For Mac:
$ docker exec -it <container-name> sh
if you want to connect as root user:
$ docker exec -u 0 -it <container-name> sh
Simple answer: start and attach at the same time. In this case you are doing exactly what you asked for.
docker start <CONTAINER_ID/CONTAINER_NAME> && docker attach <CONTAINER_ID/CONTAINER_NAME>
make sure to change <CONTAINER_ID/CONTAINER_NAME>
I am running windows container and I need to look inside the docker container for files and folder created and copied.
In order to do that I used following docker entrypoint command to get the command prompt running inside the container or attach to the container.
ENTRYPOINT ["C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe", "-D", "FOREGROUND"]
That helped me both to the command prompt attach to container and to keep the container a live. :)
# docker exec -d container_id command
Ex:
# docker exec -d xcdefrdtt service jira stop
A quick way to resume and access the most recently exited container:
docker start -a -i `docker ps -q -l`
An easy solution that solved a similar problem for me:
docker run --interactive --tty <name_of_image>