docker - Is it possible to start a shell session in a running container (without ssh)

Question

I was naively expecting this command to run a bash shell in a running container :

docker run "id of running container" /bin/bash

it looks like it's not possible, I get the error :

2013/07/27 20:00:24 Internal server error: 404 trying to fetch remote history for 27d757283842

So, if I want to run bash shell in a running container (ex. for diagnosis purposes)

do I have to run an SSH server in it and loggin via ssh ?

Answer 1

With docker 1.3, there is a new command docker exec. This allows you to enter a running docker:

docker exec -it "id of running container" bash