# community.docker.docker_container_exec module – Execute command in a docker container

Note

This module is part of the community.docker collection (version 3.4.8).

To install it, use: `ansible-galaxy collection install community.docker`. You need further requirements to be able to use this module, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: `community.docker.docker_container_exec`.

New in community.docker 1.5.0

## Synopsis

- Executes a command in a Docker container.

## Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

- Docker API >= 1.25

- backports.ssl_match_hostname (when using TLS on Python 2)

- paramiko (when using SSH with use_ssh_client=false)

- pyOpenSSL (when using TLS)

- pywin32 (when using named pipes on Windows 32)

- requests

## Parameters

Parameter | Comments
--- | ---

api_version

aliases: docker_api_version

string

The version of the Docker API running on the Docker Host.

Defaults to the latest version of the API supported by this collection and the docker daemon.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_API_VERSION` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used.

Default: `"auto"`

argv list / elements=string | The command to execute. Since this is a list of arguments, no quoting is needed. Exactly one of argv or command must be specified.
ca_cert aliases: tls_ca_cert, cacert_path path | Use a CA certificate when performing server verification by providing the path to a CA certificate file. If the value is not specified in the task and the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` is set, the file `ca.pem` from the directory specified in the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` will be used.
chdir string | The directory to run the command in.
client_cert aliases: tls_client_cert, cert_path path | Path to the client’s TLS certificate file. If the value is not specified in the task and the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` is set, the file `cert.pem` from the directory specified in the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` will be used.
client_key aliases: tls_client_key, key_path path | Path to the client’s TLS key file. If the value is not specified in the task and the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` is set, the file `key.pem` from the directory specified in the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` will be used.
command string | The command to execute. Exactly one of argv or command must be specified.
container string / required | The name of the container to execute the command in.

debug

boolean

Debug mode

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

detach

boolean

added in community.docker 2.1.0

Whether to run the command synchronously (detach=false, default) or asynchronously (detach=true).

If set to `true`, stdin cannot be provided, and the return values `stdout`, `stderr` and `rc` are not returned.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

docker_host

aliases: docker_url

string

The URL or Unix socket path used to connect to the Docker API. To connect to a remote host, provide the TCP connection string. For example, `tcp://192.0.2.23:2376`. If TLS is used to encrypt the connection, the module will automatically replace `tcp` in the connection URL with `https`.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_HOST` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used.

Default: `"unix://var/run/docker.sock"`

env

dictionary

added in community.docker 2.1.0

Dictionary of environment variables with their respective values to be passed to the command ran inside the container.

Values which might be parsed as numbers, booleans or other types by the YAML parser must be quoted (for example `"true"`) in order to avoid data loss.

Please note that if you are passing values in with Jinja2 templates, like `"{{ value }}"`, you need to add `| string` to prevent Ansible to convert strings such as `"true"` back to booleans. The correct way is to use `"{{ value | string }}"`.

ssl_version string | Provide a valid SSL version number. Default value determined by ssl.py module. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_SSL_VERSION` will be used instead.
stdin string | Set the stdin of the command directly to the specified value. Can only be used if detach=false.

stdin_add_newline

boolean

If set to `true`, appends a newline to stdin.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true` ← (default)

strip_empty_ends

boolean

Strip empty lines from the end of stdout/stderr in result.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true` ← (default)

timeout integer | The maximum amount of time in seconds to wait on a response from the API. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_TIMEOUT` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used. Default: `60`

tls

boolean

Secure the connection to the API by using TLS without verifying the authenticity of the Docker host server. Note that if validate_certs is set to `true` as well, it will take precedence.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_TLS` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

tls_hostname

string

When verifying the authenticity of the Docker Host server, provide the expected name of the server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_TLS_HOSTNAME` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used.

Note that this option had a default value `localhost` in older versions. It was removed in community.docker 3.0.0.

tty

boolean

Whether to allocate a TTY.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

use_ssh_client

boolean

added in community.docker 1.5.0

For SSH transports, use the `ssh` CLI tool instead of paramiko.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

user string | If specified, the user to execute this command with.

validate_certs

aliases: tls_verify

boolean

Secure the connection to the API by using TLS and verifying the authenticity of the Docker host server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

## Attributes

Attribute | Support | Description
--- | --- | ---
action_group | Action groups: community.docker.docker, docker | Use `group/docker` or `group/community.docker.docker` in `module_defaults` to set defaults for this module.
check_mode | Support: none | Can run in `check_mode` and return changed status prediction without modifying target.
diff_mode | Support: none | Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in `check_mode`), when in diff mode.

## Notes

Note

- Does not support `check_mode`.

- Does not work with TCP TLS sockets when using stdin. This is caused by the inability to send `close_notify` without closing the connection with Python’s `SSLSocket`s. See https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.docker/issues/605 for more information.

- Connect to the Docker daemon by providing parameters with each task or by defining environment variables. You can define `DOCKER_HOST`, `DOCKER_TLS_HOSTNAME`, `DOCKER_API_VERSION`, `DOCKER_CERT_PATH`, `DOCKER_SSL_VERSION`, `DOCKER_TLS`, `DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY` and `DOCKER_TIMEOUT`. If you are using docker machine, run the script shipped with the product that sets up the environment. It will set these variables for you. See https://docs.docker.com/machine/reference/env/ for more details.

- This module does not use the Docker SDK for Python to communicate with the Docker daemon. It uses code derived from the Docker SDK or Python that is included in this collection.

## Examples

    - name: Run a simple command (command)
      community.docker.docker_container_exec:
        container: foo
        command: /bin/bash -c "ls -lah"
        chdir: /root
      register: result

    - name: Print stdout
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        var: result.stdout

    - name: Run a simple command (argv)
      community.docker.docker_container_exec:
        container: foo
        argv:
          - /bin/bash
          - "-c"
          - "ls -lah > /dev/stderr"
        chdir: /root
      register: result

    - name: Print stderr lines
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        var: result.stderr_lines

## Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key | Description
--- | ---
exec_id string added in community.docker 2.1.0 | The execution ID of the command. Returned: success and detach=true Sample: `"249d9e3075655baf705ed8f40488c5e9434049cf3431976f1bfdb73741c574c5"`
rc integer | The exit code of the command. Returned: success and detach=false Sample: `0`
stderr string | The standard error output of the container command. Returned: success and detach=false
stdout string | The standard output of the container command. Returned: success and detach=false

### Authors

- Felix Fontein (@felixfontein)

### Collection links

Issue Tracker Repository (Sources) Submit a bug report Request a feature Communication