Alias shell command work inside container but not with docker exec "alias"-CodePudding

To simplify test execution for several different container I want to create an alias to use the same command for every container. For example for a backend container I want to be able to use docker exec -t backend test instead of docker exec -t backend pytest test

So I add this line in my backend Dockerfile :

RUN echo alias test="pytest /app/test" >> ~/.bashrc

But when I do docker exec -t backend test it doesn't work, otherwise it works when I do docker exec -ti backend bash then test. I saw that it is because alias in .bashrc works only if we use interactive terminal.

How can I get around that?

CodePudding user response：

docker exec does not run the shell, so .bashrc is just never used.

Create an executable in PATH, most probably in /usr/local/bin. Note that test is a very basic shell command, use a different unique name.

CodePudding user response：

That alias will only work for interactive shells, if you want that alias to work on other programs:

RUN echo -e '#!/bin/bash\npytest /app/test' > /usr/bin/mypytest && \
    chmod  x /usr/bin/mypytest