Docker exec command without the container ID

Question

How can do something like:

docker exec -it 06a0076fb4c0  install-smt 

But use the name of the container instead

docker exec -it container/container  install-smt 

I am running a build on CI server so I can not manually input the container ID.

How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

Yes, you can do this by naming the container with --name. Note that your command with container/container is likely referencing an image name and not the container.

➜  ~ docker run --name my_nginx -p 80:80 -d nginx d122acc37d5bc2a5e03bdb836ca7b9c69670de79063db995bfd6f66b9addfcac  ➜  ~ docker exec my_nginx hostname d122acc37d5b 

Answer 2

Although it won't save any typing, you can do something like this if you want to use the image name instead of giving the container a name:

docker run debian docker exec -it `docker ps -q --filter ancestor=debian` bash 

This will only work if you're only running one instance of the debian image.

It does help if you're constantly amending the image when working on a new Dockerfile, and wanting to repeatedly run the same command in each new container to check your changes worked as expected.