Run and attach to a Docker container with a tiny command

#docker #bash #zsh #productivity

For more information, see the Docker reference

This command runs an interactive (-i) container from the given image with an allocated tty (-t)

$ docker run -it image-name

You can make a convenience function to execute this with a short command and the image name as an argument by adding the following to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

# run detached container, start interactive session
dat() {
  image=${1}
  if [ -z "$image" ]; then
    echo Please provide an image name
    return
  fi

  docker run -it $image
}

To use:

dat image:tho

You'll need to reload your shell or run source ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc) for the file changes to take effect.

Look you saved like 10 characters!

So what?

Ok so it's a little more reasonable when you start adding more options to the command...

For example, I found myself needing to build and run a container with an explicit platform set because I'm on an M1 chip and they're just fun like that.

# ~/.zshrc
datp() {
  image=${1}
  if [ -z "$image" ]; then
    echo Please provide an image name
    return
  fi
  docker run -it --platform linux/x86_64 $image
}

dim() {
  image=${1}
  if [ -z "$image" ]; then
    echo Please provide an image name
    return
  fi

  docker build -t $image -f Dockerfile .
}

dimp() {
  image=${1}
  if [ -z "$image" ]; then
    echo Please provide an image name
    return
  fi

  docker build -t $image -f Dockerfile --platform linux/x86_64 .
}