% podman-exec(1)

## NAME
podman\-exec - Execute a command in a running container

## SYNOPSIS
**podman exec** [*options*] *container* [*command* [*arg* ...]]

**podman container exec** [*options*] *container* [*command* [*arg* ...]]

## DESCRIPTION
**podman exec** executes a command in a running container.

## OPTIONS

#### **--detach**, **-d**

Start the exec session, but do not attach to it. The command will run in the background and the exec session will be automatically removed when it completes. The **podman exec** command will print the ID of the exec session and exit immediately after it starts.

#### **--detach-keys**=*sequence*

Specify the key sequence for detaching a container. Format is a single character `[a-Z]` or one or more `ctrl-<value>` characters where `<value>` is one of: `a-z`, `@`, `^`, `[`, `,` or `_`. Specifying "" will disable this feature. The default is *ctrl-p,ctrl-q*.

#### **--env**, **-e**=*env*

Set environment variables.

This option allows arbitrary environment variables that are available for the process to be launched inside of the container. If an environment variable is specified without a value, Podman will check the host environment for a value and set the variable only if it is set on the host. As a special case, if an environment variable ending in __*__ is specified without a value, Podman will search the host environment for variables starting with the prefix and will add those variables to the container.

#### **--env-file**=*file*

Read in a line delimited file of environment variables.

#### **--interactive**, **-i**

When set to true, keep stdin open even if not attached. The default is *false*.

#### **--latest**, **-l**

Instead of providing the container name or ID, use the last created container. If you use methods other than Podman
to run containers such as CRI-O, the last started container could be from either of those methods. (This option is not available with the remote Podman client, including Mac and Windows (excluding WSL2) machines)

#### **--preserve-fds**=*N*

Pass down to the process N additional file descriptors (in addition to 0, 1, 2).  The total FDs will be 3+N.

#### **--privileged**

Give extended privileges to this container. The default is *false*.

By default, Podman containers are
"unprivileged" and cannot, for example, modify parts of the operating system.
This is because by default a container is only allowed limited access to devices.
A "privileged" container is given the same access to devices as the user launching the container.

A privileged container turns off the security features that isolate the
container from the host. Dropped Capabilities, limited devices, read/only mount
points, Apparmor/SELinux separation, and Seccomp filters are all disabled.

Rootless containers cannot have more privileges than the account that launched them.


#### **--tty**, **-t**

Allocate a pseudo-TTY.

#### **--user**, **-u**

Sets the username or UID used and optionally the groupname or GID for the specified command.
The following examples are all valid:
--user [user | user:group | uid | uid:gid | user:gid | uid:group ]

@@option workdir

## Exit Status

The exit code from `podman exec` gives information about why the command within the container failed to run or why it exited.  When `podman exec` exits with a
non-zero code, the exit codes follow the `chroot` standard, see below:

  **125** The error is with Podman itself

    $ podman exec --foo ctrID /bin/sh; echo $?
    Error: unknown flag: --foo
    125

  **126** The _contained command_ cannot be invoked

    $ podman exec ctrID /etc; echo $?
    Error: container_linux.go:346: starting container process caused "exec: \"/etc\": permission denied": OCI runtime error
    126

  **127** The _contained command_ cannot be found

    $ podman exec ctrID foo; echo $?
    Error: container_linux.go:346: starting container process caused "exec: \"foo\": executable file not found in $PATH": OCI runtime error
    127

  **Exit code** The _contained command_ exit code

    $ podman exec ctrID /bin/sh -c 'exit 3'; echo $?
    3

## EXAMPLES

```
$ podman exec -it ctrID ls
$ podman exec -it -w /tmp myCtr pwd
$ podman exec --user root ctrID ls
```

## SEE ALSO
**[podman(1)](podman.1.md)**, **[podman-run(1)](podman-run.1.md)**

## HISTORY
December 2017, Originally compiled by Brent Baude<bbaude@redhat.com>