[JENKINS-55306] Feature Request: Add exec/inner Method to Container Object

Would be very handy to be able to connect to a running container from within a withRun block. I'm thinking it would behave exactly like inside(), except that it would run docker exec to run a command in the container. For example, if you needed to run a Postgres server with an extension installed, you could do it something like this:

script {

    image('postgres:10').withRun('-p 5432:5432') { c ->

c.inside {

    // Attached to the Postgres container.

    sh "apt-get update"

    sh "apt-get install hypopg"

}

// Do stuff that relies on Postgres with hypopg

    }

}

I would think there would be plenty of use cases for spinning up a container and doing a bit of configuration on it before using a service it provides.

(Dupe GitHub Issue)

---
Originally reported by theory, imported from: Feature Request: Add exec/inner Method to Container Object

• status: Open
  
• priority: Minor
  
• component(s): docker-workflow-plugin
  
• label(s): pipeline
  
• resolution: Unresolved
  
• votes: 0
  
• watchers: 1
  
• imported: 2025-12-07
  

Would be very handy to be able to connect to a running container from within a withRun block. I'm thinking it would behave exactly like inside(), except that it would run docker exec to run a command in the container. For example, if you needed to run a Postgres server with an extension installed, you could do it something like this:



script {

    image('postgres:10').withRun('-p 5432:5432') { c ->

        c.inside {

            // Attached to the Postgres container.

            sh "apt-get update"

            sh "apt-get install hypopg"

        }

        // Do stuff that relies on Postgres with hypopg

    }

}



I would think there would be plenty of use cases for spinning up a container and doing a bit of configuration on it before using a service it provides.


(Dupe GitHub Issue)