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 will run in the background
       and the exec session will be automatically removed when  it  completes.  The  podman  exec
       command will print the ID of the exec session and exit 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 "" will disable 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 will check 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 will search the host environment for variables starting with the
       prefix and will add those variables to the container.

   --env-file=file
       Read in a line-delimited file of environment variables.

   --interactive, -i
       When set to true, keep stdin open even if not attached. The default is false.

   --latest, -l
       Instead of providing the container name or ID, use the last created container. If you  use
       methods  other  than  Podman  to  run containers such as CRI-O, the last started container
       could be from either of those methods. (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 will be 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.

       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
       separation, and Seccomp filters are all disabled.

       Rootless containers cannot have more privileges than the account that launched them.

   --tty, -t
       Allocate a pseudo-TTY. The default is false.

       When set to true, Podman will allocate 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  should  only
       be  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 will run 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 will 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  will  by  default
       correspond 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 operator 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

              $ podman exec -it ctrID ls
              $ podman exec -it -w /tmp myCtr pwd
              $ podman exec --user root ctrID ls

SEE ALSO

       podman(1), podman-run(1)

HISTORY

       December     2017,     Originally     compiled     by     Brent     Baudebbaude@redhat.com
       ⟨mailto:bbaude@redhat.com⟩

                                                                                   podman-exec(1)