I have a fundamental question about container life cycle.
For example I run the following command
Create new ubuntu container and run the bash command
docker run -it ubuntu bash
In the container's bash
exit
The new container will be in state EXITED
docker ps -a
Then I use docker start to restart the container
docker start xxxx(container name)
docker exec -it xxxx(container name) /bin/bash
In the restarted container's bash
exit
The restarted container is still running
docker ps -a
May I know the reason behind for this behavior? Thank you!
With the docker run command:
docker run -it ubuntu bash
the container is started with the execution of the bash command, so when you exit from the bash, the container also exits as bash is the main process running inside the container.
However with the docker exec command:
docker exec -it xxxx(container name) /bin/bash
the container is already running the command defined by the CMD/ENTRYPOINT and bash is the command executed as a separate process. So, exiting from bash after docker start exits the bash process and the main process is still continued.
Objective
Essentially what I am trying to accomplish is to install a bunch of software but store the commands run in the Dockerfile in the end. I was planning on recording the installation process by running the "script" function to record the commands run on the command line. I would like to know why it doesn't work but if there is a better way of doing it, I am all ears!
The issue
I'm sure there is a simple answer to this but I can't seem to figure it out. When I create a dummy file within my docker container it dissapears when I exit the container even though the container is running in the background.
Attempt
This is my Dockerfile
##Filename = Dockerfile
FROM centos:7
WORKDIR /dummy_folder
CMD ["echo", "hello world"]
I build the image and run it in the background.
docker build -t my_test_image:v1.0 .
docker run -d e9e949b5d85a tail -f /dev/null
Now I can see my container running in the background
docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
6f4da7a1b74d e9e949b5d85a "tail -f /dev/null" 14 minutes ago Up 14 minutes trusting_poincare
If I create an interactive session and just dump a file in /dummy_folder and exit. When I create a new interactive session /dummy_folder is empty again.
docker run -it e9e949b5d85a /bin/bash
echo "dummy" > dummy
exit
docker run -it e9e949b5d85a /bin/bash
ls -alh /dummy_folder
P.S tail -f /dev/null is just a trick I use to keep the container running in the background as just running it with the flag -d doesn't work for centos containers apparently.
I am running Docker version 19.03.8, build afacb8b
Thanks
Sabri
You're creating a new container every time your run docker run ... . What I think you're trying to do is run a shell on the same container you started with docker run -d e9e949b5d85a tail -f /dev/null. If so, the Docker command your'e looking for is exec
Start an interactive session using the container ID (not the image ID) and do your stuff
docker exec -it 6f4da7a1b74d /bin/bash
$ echo "dummy" > dummy
$ exit
And then check the contents again with exec
docker exec 6f4da7a1b74d ls -alh /dummy_folder
I am on Windows 10 and I have WSL2 enabled. When I do docker pull ubuntu followed by docker run ubuntu, a new ubuntu container with a randomly generated name shows up in my dashboard and it starts for half a second, but then immediately stops. If I press the start button the same behaviour is observed. I tried running these commands from Command Prompt, PowerShell, and my downloaded Ubuntu 18.04 distro (which is also my default WSL2 distro) all with the same result.
How do I fix this?
Also, docker logs <container_name> doesn't result in anything and double-clicking the container name in the dashboard doesn't show any logs.
A docker container exits when its main process finishes its execution. Now when you check Dockerfile of Ubuntu image you can see the
CMD ["/bin/bash"] which get execute when we start the container.
so if you need to run the container in the background you can do
docker run -id --name=myubuntu ubuntu
Or you can directly launch the container with an interactive shell using
docker run -it --name=myubuntu ubuntu /bin/bash
$ docker run -d ubuntu bash -c "tail -f /dev/null"
8181cb08da63e8c2b43696155088f1a7da58023d426f11dbc52ec4867a2f5bdf
Using a command that hangs (e.g tail -f /dev/null) ensures that the container won't close early.
You can then enter the container using
$ docker exec -it 8181cb08da63e8c2b43696155088f1a7da58023d426f11dbc52ec4867a2f5bdf /bin/bash
To make it easier you could name the container by using the --name flag
$ docker run -d --name=myubuntu ubuntu bash -c "tail -f /dev/null"
fd534285934a6d62e6955ee330134e342d97a6900f4531f5ee60f729d4c6d43d
Then enter the container using
$ docker exec -it myubuntu /bin/bash
I'm studying the Docker documentation, but I'm having a hard time understanding the concept of creating a container, ssh, and ssh back.
I created a container with
docker run -ti ubuntu /bin/bash
Then, it starts the container and I can run commands. docker ps gives me
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
0e37da213a37 ubuntu "/bin/bash" About a minute ago Up About a minute keen_sammet
The issue is after I exit the container I can't ssh back.
I tried docker attach that gives me Error: No such container and I tried docker exec -ti <container>/bin/bash that gives me the same message Error: No such container
How do I run and ssh back to the container?
When you exit the bash process, the container exits (in general, a container will exit when the foreground process exits). The error message you are seeing is accurately describing the situation (the container is no longer running).
If you want to be able to docker exec into a container, you will want to run some sort of persistent command. For example, if you were to run:
docker run -ti -d --name mycontainer ubuntu bash
This would start a "detached" container. That means you've started bash, but it's just hanging around doing nothing. You could use docker exec to start a new process in this container:
$ docker exec -it mycontainer ps -fe
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
root 1 0 0 16:28 pts/0 00:00:00 bash
root 17 0 0 16:28 pts/1 00:00:00 ps -fe
Or:
$ docker exec -it mycontainer bash
There's really no reason to start bash as the main process in this case, since you're not interacting with it. You can just as easily run...
docker run -ti -d --name mycontainer ubuntu sleep inf
...and the behavior would be the same.
The most common use case for all of this is when your docker run command starts up some sort of persistent service (like a web server, or a database server, etc), and then you use docker exec to perform diagnostic or maintenance tasks.
The docker attach command will re-connect you with the primary console of a detached container. In other words, if we return to the initial example:
docker run -ti -d --name mycontainer ubuntu bash
You could connect to that bash process (instead of starting a new one) by running:
docker attach mycontainer
At this point, exit would cause the container to exit.
First, you don't ssh to a docker container (unless you have a sshd process in that container). But you can execute a command with docker exec -ti mycontainer bash -l
But you can exec a command only on running container. If the container exited already you must use another approach : create an image from the container and run a new one.
Here is an example. First I create a container and create a file within then I exit it.
$ docker run -ti debian:9-slim bash -l
root#09f889e80153:/# echo aaaaaaaaaa > /zzz
root#09f889e80153:/# cat /zzz
aaaaaaaaaa
root#09f889e80153:/# exit
logout
As you can see the container is exited (Exited (0) 24 seconds ago)
$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
09f889e80153 debian:9-slim "bash -l" 45 seconds ago Exited (0) 24 seconds ago thirsty_hodgkin
So I create a new image with docker commit
$ docker commit 09f889e80153 bla
sha256:6ceb88470326d2da4741099c144a11a00e7eb1f86310cfa745e8d3441ac9639e
So I can run a new container that contains previous container content.
$ docker run -ti bla bash -l
root#479a0af3d197:/# cat zzz
aaaaaaaaaa
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>