How do I edit a file after I shell to a Docker container?

Question

I successfully shelled to a Docker container using:

docker exec -i -t 69f1711a205e bash

Now I need to edit file and I don\'t have any edito

Answer 1

You can use cat if installed, with the > caracter. Here is the manipulation :

cat > file_to_edit
#1 Write or Paste you text
#2 don't forget to leave a blank line at the end of file
#3 Ctrl + C to apply configuration

Now you can see the result with the command

cat file

Answer 2

You can open existing file with

cat filename.extension

and copy all the existing text on clipboard.

Then delete old file with

rm filename.extension

or rename old file with

mv old-filename.extension new-filename.extension

Create new file with

cat > new-file.extension

Then paste all text copied on clipboard, press Enter and exit with save by pressing ctrl+z. And voila no need to install any kind of editors.

Answer 3

After you shelled to the Docker container, just type:

apt-get update
apt-get install nano

Answer 4

If you use Windows container and you want change any file, you can get and use Vim in Powershell console easily.

To shelled to the Windows Docker container with PowerShell:

docker exec -it <name> powershell

• First install Chocolatey package manager

  Invoke-WebRequest https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1 -UseBasicParsing | Invoke-Expression;

• Install Vim

  choco install vim

• Refresh ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLE You can just exit and shell back to the container

• Go to file location and Vim it vim file.txt