CODEWITHSUNDEEP
docker
Andy Fusniak
Andy Fusniak

Reputation: 1628

How to start an interactive shell in a container that continuously exits?

I started a container instance using a postgres image. Whilst the container was running I connected to it using

docker exec -it postgres-13.1 bash

From here I edited the postgresql.conf and introduced a typo such that attempting to restart the container immediately exits and the logs show

FATAL:  configuration file "/var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf" contains errors

It isn't possible to excute a bash script using docker exec -it postgres-13.1 bash because this only applies to a running container.

What command can I issue to start the container and drop directly into a bash shell instead of attempting to start the database server?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 324

Answers (3)

foad322
foad322

Reputation: 111

Regarding good solution by Chris, the more stable solution is to mount postgresql.conf file onto your host machine. Doing so, you'll be able to change your postgre configurations without accessing to running container. You also won't need to docker cp conf file into the container. you can mount .conf file as below docker run -v /home/<your-user>:/var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf .... But if you've created the container in prior, you now should change the container configurations via /var/lib/docker/containers/<postgre-container-long-hashed-ID>/hostconfig.json file:

1. docker stop <postgre-container>
2. change /var/lib/docker/containers/<postgre-container-long-hashed-ID>/hostconfig.json file as formal notation for mounting a filesystem
3. save changes to hostconfig.json file
4. sudo systemctl start docker.service
5. docker start <postgre-container>

Upvotes: 0

Sandeep
Sandeep

Reputation: 817

As Chris Mentioned, docker cp command works for your case Create a file (say correct-postgresql.conf ) with configuration in your machine and do the following and then you can start your container and it works fine.

docker cp correct-postgresql.conf <containerId>:/var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf

Upvotes: 0

Chris Becke
Chris Becke

Reputation: 36016

docker cp can copy files into (or out) a stopped container. This should be sufficient to repair the file and restart the container.

Upvotes: 3

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