execute-a-command-on-a-running-container.md

Execute a Command on a Running Container

Sometimes you need to execute a command in a container's runtime, but you don't actually need to enter that container. The trick is to leave off the -it argument you'd normally use to enter that container.

docker exec <container-name> <command>

An example might be,

docker exec django python3 manage.py collectstatic --no-input

This is particularly useful whan executing commands remotely over SSH.

ssh -i ~./ssh/key user@hostname "docker exec django python3 manage.py collectstatic --no-input"

If you try to use -it in the command above, you get an error about TTY.