Docker exec

Intro

dockerExec is a CLI tool written in Go that provides an enhanced alternative to docker exec -it <container_id> /bin/bash. It opens a bash session inside a specified Docker container with a customizable and user-friendly prompt.

Essentially transforming this:

To this:

Installation

Go install

If you have golang locally, you can install it via go:

go install github.com/ntavelis/dockerExec/cmd/dockerExec@latest

Latest binary

Download the latest binary from here, it contains a pre-compiled gzipped binary.

For instance for, VERSION=v1.0.0 and BINARY=dockerExec_Linux_x86_64

wget https://github.com/ntavelis/dockerExec/releases/download/${VERSION}/${BINARY}.tar.gz -O - |\
  tar xz && mv dockerExec /usr/bin/dockerExec && rm README.md

Usage

Basic Usage

To open a bash session inside a Docker container with the default prompt style:

dockerExec <containerID>

Full usage with flags

You can customize the shell, user, prompt style, and prompt symbol using flags:

dockerExec --shell=/bin/bash --user=root --promptStyle="\\u@\\w:\\p" --promptSymbol="$" <containerID>

Flags

• --shell: Specify the shell to use (default: /bin/bash)
• --user: Specify the user to run the shell as (default: current user)
• --promptStyle: Customize the prompt style (default: "👨\\u ~> 📂\\w\r\n\\p")
• --promptSymbol: Customize the prompt symbol (default: ">")
• --help(-h): Display the help message
• --version(-v): Display version information

Customizing the Prompt

Prompt Style (--promptStyle)

The --promptStyle flag allows you to customize the appearance of your bash prompt. The following placeholders are supported:

• \\u: Replaced with the current user
• \\w: Replaced with the current working directory
• \\p: Replaced with the prompt symbol (passed with the --promptSymbol flag)

Note: Special chars \n \r \t are supported currently and can be used to promptStyle flag

Example

If you want your prompt to display the user and the working directory followed by the prompt symbol, you can set it like this:

dockerExec --promptStyle="\\u@\\w:\\p" <containerID>

Prompt Symbol (--promptSymbol)

The --promptSymbol flag allows you to define a custom symbol to be used at the end of the prompt. This symbol will replace the \p placeholder in the --promptStyle flag.

Example

dockerExec --promptSymbol="$" <containerID>

Examples of custom prompts to get inspired

The below commands will customize the prompt, you can add them as alias in your terminal to easily use custom prompt in docker containers.

Example 1: User at Hostname

dockerExec --promptStyle="\\u@\\w:\\p" --promptSymbol="\$" <containerID>

Example 2: Minimal Prompt

dockerExec --promptStyle="\\w \\p" --promptSymbol=">" <containerID>

Example 3: Emoji Prompt

dockerExec --promptStyle="👤\\u 💻\\w 📝\\p" --promptSymbol=">" <containerID>

Example 4: Multiline Prompt

dockerExec --promptStyle="\\u@\\w\n\r\\p" --promptSymbol="\$" <containerID>

Example 5: Prompt with container info

export container_name=$(docker inspect -f '{{.Name}}' cool_container | cut -c 2-)
export container_status=$(docker inspect -f '{{.State.Status}}' cool_container)
dockerExec --promptStyle="\\u@[$container_name ($container_status)]:\\w\n\r\\p" --promptSymbol=">" <containerID>