One-off Tasks
run [-e|--env KEY=VALUE] [--no-tty] <app> <cmd> # Run a command in a new container using the current app image
run:detached [-e|-env KEY=VALUE] [--no-tty] <app> <cmd> # Run a command in a new detached container using the current app image
run:list [--format json|stdout] [<app>] # List all run containers for an app
run:logs <app|--container CONTAINER> [-h] [-t] [-n num] [-q] # Display recent log output for run containers
run:stop <app|--container CONTAINER> # Stops all run containers for an app or a specified run container
Sometimes it is necessary to run a one-off command under an app. Dokku makes it easy to run a fresh container via the run command.
Usage
Running a one-off command
The run command can be used to run a one-off process for a specific command. This will start a new container and run the desired command within that container. The container image will be the same container image as was used to start the currently deployed app.
New
Introduced in 0.25.0, this container will be removed after the process exits.
# runs `ls -lah` in the `/app` directory of the app `node-js-app`
dokku run node-js-app ls -lah
# optionally, run can be passed custom environment variables
dokku run --env "NODE_ENV=development" --env "PATH=/custom/path" node-js-app npm run mytask
One off containers are removed at the end of process execution.
Running Procfile commands
The run command can also be used to run a command defined in the app Procfile:
Specifying container labels
Containers may have specific labels attached. In order to avoid issues with dokku internals, do not use any labels beginning with either com.dokku or org.label-schema.
Disabling TTY
New
Introduced in 0.25.0
One-off containers default to interactive mode where possible. To disable this behavior, specify the --no-tty flag:
Running a detached container
New
Introduced in 0.25.0
Finally, a container can be run in "detached" mode via the run:detached Dokku command. Running a process in detached mode will immediately return a CONTAINER_ID. Detached containers are run without a tty and are also removed at the end of process execution.
Displaying one-off container logs
You can easily get logs of all one-off containers for an app using the logs command:
Logs are pulled via integration with the scheduler for the specified application via "live tailing". As such, logs from previously running deployments are usually not available. Users that desire to see logs from previous deployments for debugging purposes should persist those logs to external services. Please see Dokku's vector integration for more information on how to persist logs across deployments to ship logs to another service or a third-party platform.
Behavioral modifiers
Dokku also supports certain command-line arguments that augment the run:log command's behavior.
--container NAME # the name of a specific container to show logs for
-n, --num NUM # the number of lines to display
-t, --tail # continually stream logs
-q, --quiet # display raw logs without colors, time and names
You can use these modifiers as follows:
The above command will show logs continually from the node-js-app.run.1234 one-off run process.
Listing one-off containers
New
Introduced in 0.25.0
One-off containers for a given app can be listed via the run:list command:
Info
The COMMAND displayed will be what Docker executes and may not exactly match the command specified by a dokku run command.
The output can also be shown in json format:
Stopping a one-off cotainer
New
Introduced in 0.29.0
Run containers for an app can be stopped via the run:stop command. The output will be the container id.
node-js-app.run.2313
node-js-app.run.2313 node-js-app.run.574 ```