Store `docker run` command output in BASH variable

Question

I'm having an issue storing the output of docker run -it -d -p 43211:3000 --name appname -h hostname -v $PWD/local_dir:/root/remote_dir repo/imagename in a BASH varibale. I tried `backticks`, I also tried running it like the official docs say BASH_VAR=$(docker run ...), I even tried storing the output in a file with docker run --...>$FILE_DESCRIPTOR, but no luck storing the error situation, the situation when the name is already used by another container, like so:

$ FATA[0000] Error response from daemon: Conflict. The name "appname" is already in use by container 7c84d8d703c8. You have to delete (or rename) that container to be able to reuse that name.

I want to say that it works for the success situation, so I'm able to store in BASH_VAR the full container ID, upon running the application successfully, but unfortunately this solves only half the problem I'm facing.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer 1

What you need is to capture standard error and store it in a variable.

Using

BASH_VAR=$(command)

or

BASH_VAR=`command`

will capture standard output and not standard error.

This is the right syntax to store standard error messages in a variable:

BASH_VAR=$( { command; } 2>&1 )