666

Is there any way to start an interactive shell in a container using Docker Compose only? I've tried something like this, in my docker-compose.yml:

myapp:
  image: alpine:latest
  entrypoint: /bin/sh

When I start this container using docker-compose up it's exited immediately. Are there any flags I can add to the entrypoint command, or as an additional option to myapp, to start an interactive shell?

I know there are native docker command options to achieve this, just curious if it's possible using only Docker Compose, too.

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6
  • 1
    This is not supposed to work. For example, if you have multiple images with /bin/sh entrypoint in your compose file, what should it do? Commented Mar 27, 2016 at 16:38
  • 2
    Hmh, why not just start multiple shells? For example, a shell into a mysql container to work with mysql cli, and a shell into a backup container to run backup commands? Commented Mar 27, 2016 at 17:06
  • 6
    what about docker-compose run myapp ? Commented Mar 27, 2016 at 17:07
  • 3
    @ibova The problem is with docker-compose run myapp is that it won't expose the ports. So you have to use docker-compose run --service-ports myapp but still its not very convenient. Commented Oct 4, 2018 at 12:35
  • 2
    @codentary It is just YAML, so quotes are optional in this particular case. Commented Jan 22, 2021 at 21:47

14 Answers 14

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834

You need to include the following lines in your docker-compose.yml:

version: "3"
services:
  app:
    image: app:1.2.3
    stdin_open: true # docker run -i
    tty: true        # docker run -t

The first corresponds to -i in docker run and the second to -t.

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12 Comments

that stdin_open is the missing link, for simply providing me the expected behavior when I attach to one of my containers that is already running a shell.
@TheFool, Even I got the same issue. Its better to run docker-compose run <service_name>
Where exactly is this added? Inside the service?
This still does not work if I use docker-compose up and entrypoint ["/bin/sh"]. Although the container does not exist immediately. Is the input attached to the entrypoint?
Works well with docker attach <container_name>
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497

The canonical way to get an interactive shell with docker-compose is to use:

docker-compose run --rm myapp

With the service name myapp taken from your example. More general: it must be an existing service name in your docker-compose file, myapp is not just a command of your choice. For example, bash instead of myapp would not work here.

You can set stdin_open: true, tty: true, however that won't actually give you a proper shell with up, because logs are being streamed from all the containers.

You can also use:

docker exec -ti <container name> /bin/bash

to get a shell on a running container.

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10 Comments

Note you need to add --service-ports if you expose any ports(ie for a web server)
I've updated my answer to provide more information and add the --rm flag so that the container is removed. The answer by @lynx0123 is not correct. You will not get an interactive shell if you run docker-compose up.
To get this to work using Docker for Windows, I needed docker-compose v. 1.9.0 (see Github issue and PR). As of 12/19/16, this only ships with beta versions of Docker for Windows. Then docker-compose run works. You'll also want to add command: /bin/bash to docker-compose.yml.
This should be the top answer. This is what I was looking for when I came here.
docker-compose up -d && docker attach <container_name>
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151

The official getting started example (https://docs.docker.com/compose/gettingstarted/) uses the following docker-compose.yml:

version: "3.9"
services:
  web:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "8000:5000"
  redis:
    image: "redis:alpine"

After you start this with docker-compose up, you can shell into either your redis container or your web container with:

docker-compose exec redis sh
docker-compose exec web sh
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2 Comments

And why with other images I can't do it, I just asked here stackoverflow.com/questions/66638731/…
This works like charm! I was trying with docker exec -it <container name> sh and it failed once and other again. running through docker-compose exec really works!
94

docker-compose run myapp sh should do the deal.

There is some confusion with up/run, but docker-compose run docs have great explanation: https://docs.docker.com/compose/reference/run

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5 Comments

Thank you so much. Just a little add to clarify. docker-compose run [your-service-name-defined-in-docker-compose.yml] [sh or bash].
I think this is the most straightforward of answers. I needed to verify the environment is correct for the service by going docker-compose run <service-name> sh as suggested.
To override the entrypoint configured in docker-compose.yml I had to use: docker-compose run --entrypoint /bin/bash myapp
This really did the trick, when working with docker-compose!!
Great alternative command Instead of docker-compose up later running interactive shell from the container. I do use docker-compose -f other-compose-file.yml run myapp sh to run specific version of node with alpine image. where -f specifies yml file that declares myapp service.
73

If anyone from the future also wanders up here:

docker-compose exec service_name sh

or

docker-compose exec service_name bash

or you can run single lines like

docker-compose exec service_name php -v

That is after you already have your containers up and running.

The service_name is defined in your docker-compose.yml file

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3 Comments

This is incorrect it is: docker-compose exec <service_name>, not docker-compose exec <container_name>.
And why with other images I can't do it, I just asked here stackoverflow.com/questions/66638731/…
It is now docker compose btw. If anyone is still using the v1 aka docker-compose, you should update to v2: docs.docker.com/compose/migrate
38

Using docker-compose, I found the easiest way to do this is to do a docker ps -a (after starting my containers with docker-compose up) and get the ID of the container I want to have an interactive shell in (let's call it xyz123).

Then it's a simple matter to execute docker exec -ti xyz123 /bin/bash

and voila, an interactive shell.

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2 Comments

Not sure why this was down-voted - it's a great way to get debugging in case anything goes wrong, and I used this method with success, like, within a minute of reading this solution.
@ericmjl Because it's a two step process where the question asked specifically about using docker-compose features, and was already stated in the other answer
13

You can get an interactive shell with docker-compose using the following command (considering that the yml has specified a service called myservice):

$ docker-compose exec myservice sh

In the case of using a different yml file name, such as docker-compose-mycompose.yml, to get the interactive terminal, it is necessary to specify the yml, like:

$ docker-compose -f docker-compose-mycompose.yml exec myservice sh
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1 Comment

This requires, that the container is already running. A prerequisite for that is, that Dockerfile has a CMD [...] line, that does not exit immediately, which seems to be the case in the question.
11

This question is very interesting for me because I have problems, when I run container after execution finishes immediately exit and I fixed with -it:

docker run -it -p 3000:3000 -v /app/node_modules -v $(pwd):/app <your_container_id>

And when I must automate it with docker compose:

version: '3'
services:
    frontend:
        stdin_open: true
        tty: true
        build: 
            context: .
            dockerfile: Dockerfile.dev
        ports: 
            - "3000:3000"
        volumes: 
            - /app/node_modules
            - .:/app

This makes the trick: stdin_open: true, tty: true

This is a project generated with create-react-app

Dockerfile.dev it looks this that:

FROM node:alpine

WORKDIR '/app'

COPY package.json .
RUN npm install

COPY . . 

CMD ["npm", "run", "start"]

Hope this example will help other to run a frontend(react in example) into docker container.

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2 Comments

Hey @Carnaru can you tell me the reason of using "- /app/node_modules" command under the volume section
@aashirkhan it's related to using volumes and having the container use the node_modules in the container rather than your local files
9

I prefer

docker-compose exec my_container_name bash
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5

A addition to this old question, as I only had the case last time. The difference between sh and bash. So it can happen that for some bash doesn't work and only sh does.

So you can: docker-compose exec CONTAINER_NAME sh

and in most cases: docker-compose exec CONTAINER_NAME bash

use.

If you have time. The difference between sh and bash is well explained here: https://www.baeldung.com/linux/sh-vs-bash

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4

You can do docker-compose exec SERVICE_NAME sh on the command line. The SERVICE_NAME is defined in your docker-compose.yml. For example,

services:
    zookeeper:
        image: wurstmeister/zookeeper
        ports:
          - "2181:2181"

The SERVICE_NAME would be "zookeeper".

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2

According to documentation -> https://docs.docker.com/compose/reference/run/

You can use this docker-compose run --rm app bash

[app] is the name of your service in docker-compose.yml

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2

You can execute the shell through docker compose run.

compose.yml:

services:
  myapp:
    build: .

Dockerfile

FROM alpine:latest

Commandline on host

docker compose run --rm myapp sh -c "/bin/sh"

You might also want to mount some volumes in the compose file to persist whatever you are doing inside the container in compose.yml:

services:
  myapp:
    build: .
    volumes:
      - .:/app

I have mounted the current directory on host to the directory /app inside the container.

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1 Comment

I also follow this approach with docker compose: docker compose run --rm --service-ports myapp sh
1

I found the following steps can open an interactive shell, although it's not directly with docker-compose:

  • After running docker-compose up
  • Check the name of the container using docker ps -a
  • Choose the container name you want to open an interactive bash shell for
  • Run docker exec -it containerName bash

Your terminal should now be in the bash shell of the container and you can interact with its content.

Hope this helps.

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