How to get docker container name in java code

Question

If I am running a java application inside a Docker container and I want to fetch the name of the running docker container (inside which my java application is running) from the same java application code, what is the way to get the container name through java code?

Please note that I want to have the java code in the same java application which is running inside the container.

Answer 1

You could make sure you have the docker.sock mounted, and call docker inspect from there (since you can call docker command with Java)

But that seems overly complex (and relies on hostname being not overriden when launching the container: it does not work in edge cases)

A much simpler solution would be to pass the container name as an environment variable when running said container:

docker run -e name=<containerName> --tag <containerName> ...

That way, you can from Java query an environment variable that you have set yourself when starting the container.