podman-exec

podman-exec(1) General Commands Manual podman-exec(1)

NAME

   podman-exec - Execute a command in a running container

SYNOPSIS

   podman exec [options] container command [arg ...]

   podman container exec [options] container command [arg ...]

DESCRIPTION

   podman exec executes a command in a running container.

OPTIONS --detach, -d

   Start  the  exec  session, but do not attach to it. The command runs in the background, and the exec session is automatically removed when it completes. The podman exec command prints
   the ID of the exec session and exits immediately after it starts.

--detach-keys=sequence

   Specify the key sequence for detaching a container. Format is a single character [a-Z] or one or more ctrl-<value> characters where <value> is one of: a-z, @, ^, [, , or _. Specifying
   "" disables this feature. The default is ctrl-p,ctrl-q.

   This option can also be set in containers.conf(5) file.

--env, -e=env

   Set environment variables.

   This option allows arbitrary environment variables that are available for the process to be launched inside of the container. If an environment variable is specified without a  value,
   Podman  checks  the  host  environment for a value and set the variable only if it is set on the host. As a special case, if an environment variable ending in * is specified without a
   value, Podman searches the host environment for variables starting with the prefix and adds those variables to the container.

--env-file=file

   Read in a line-delimited file of environment variables.

--interactive, -i

   When set to true, make stdin available to the contained process. If false, the stdin of the contained process is empty and immediately closed.

   If attached, stdin is piped to the contained process. If detached, reading stdin will block until later attached.

   Caveat: Podman will consume input from stdin as soon as it becomes available, even if the contained process doesn't request it.

--latest, -l

   Instead of providing the container name or ID, use the last created container.  Note: the last started container can be from other users of Podman on the host machine.   (This  option
   is not available with the remote Podman client, including Mac and Windows (excluding WSL2) machines)

--preserve-fd=FD1[,FD2,...]

   Pass  down  to the process the additional file descriptors specified in the comma separated list.  It can be specified multiple times.  This option is only supported with the crun OCI
   runtime.  It might be a security risk to use this option with other OCI runtimes.

   (This option is not available with the remote Podman client, including Mac and Windows (excluding WSL2) machines)

--preserve-fds=N

   Pass down to the process N additional file descriptors (in addition to 0, 1, 2).  The total FDs are 3+N.  (This option is not available with the remote Podman  client,  including  Mac
   and Windows (excluding WSL2) machines)

--privileged

   Give extended privileges to this container. The default is false.

   By  default,  Podman containers are unprivileged (=false) and cannot, for example, modify parts of the operating system. This is because by default a container is only allowed limited
   access to devices. A "privileged" container is given the same access to devices as the user launching the container, with the exception of virtual consoles (/dev/tty\d+) when  running
   in systemd mode (--systemd=always).

   A  privileged container turns off the security features that isolate the container from the host. Dropped Capabilities, limited devices, read-only mount points, Apparmor/SELinux sepa‐
   ration, and Seccomp filters are all disabled.  Due to the disabled security features, the privileged field should almost never be set as containers can easily break  out  of  confine‐
   ment.

   Containers running in a user namespace (e.g., rootless containers) cannot have more privileges than the user that launched them.

--tty, -t

   Allocate a pseudo-TTY. The default is false.

   When set to true, Podman allocates a pseudo-tty and attach to the standard input of the container. This can be used, for example, to run a throwaway interactive shell.

   NOTE:  The  --tty  flag prevents redirection of standard output.  It combines STDOUT and STDERR, it can insert control characters, and it can hang pipes. This option is only used when
   run interactively in a terminal. When feeding input to Podman, use -i only, not -it.

--user, -u=user[:group]

   Sets the username or UID used and, optionally, the groupname or GID for the specified command. Both user and group may be symbolic or numeric.

   Without this argument, the command runs as the user specified in the container image. Unless overridden by a USER command in the Containerfile or by a value  passed  to  this  option,
   this user generally defaults to root.

   When  a  user  namespace is not in use, the UID and GID used within the container and on the host match. When user namespaces are in use, however, the UID and GID in the container may
   correspond to another UID and GID on the host. In rootless containers, for example, a user namespace is always used, and root in the container by default corresponds to  the  UID  and
   GID of the user invoking Podman.

--workdir, -w=dir

   Working directory inside the container.

   The default working directory for running binaries within a container is the root directory (/).  The image developer can set a different default with the WORKDIR instruction. The op‐
   erator can override the working directory by using the -w option.

Exit Status

   The  exit  code  from  podman  exec gives information about why the command within the container failed to run or why it exited.  When podman exec exits with a non-zero code, the exit
   codes follow the chroot standard, see below:

   125 The error is with Podman itself

   $ podman exec --foo ctrID /bin/sh; echo $?
   Error: unknown flag: --foo
   125

   126 The contained command cannot be invoked

   $ podman exec ctrID /etc; echo $?
   Error: container_linux.go:346: starting container process caused "exec: \"/etc\": permission denied": OCI runtime error
   126

   127 The contained command cannot be found

   $ podman exec ctrID foo; echo $?
   Error: container_linux.go:346: starting container process caused "exec: \"foo\": executable file not found in $PATH": OCI runtime error
   127

   Exit code The contained command exit code

   $ podman exec ctrID /bin/sh -c 'exit 3'; echo $?
   3

EXAMPLES

   Execute command in selected container with a stdin and a tty allocated:

   $ podman exec -it ctrID ls

   Execute command with the overridden working directory in selected container with a stdin and a tty allocated:

   $ podman exec -it -w /tmp myCtr pwd

   Execute command as the specified user in selected container:

   $ podman exec --user root ctrID ls