'How to check if a process is running inside docker container?
[Updated1] I have a shell which will change TCP kernel parameters in some functions, but now I need to make this shell run in Docker container, that means, the shell need to know it is running inside a container and stop configuring the kernel.
Now I'm not sure how to achieve that, here is the contents of /proc/self/cgroup inside the container:
9:hugetlb:/
8:perf_event:/
7:blkio:/
6:freezer:/
5:devices:/
4:memory:/
3:cpuacct:/
2:cpu:/docker/25ef774c390558ad8c4e9a8590b6a1956231aae404d6a7aba4dde320ff569b8b
1:cpuset:/
Any flags above can I use to figure out if this process is running inside a container?
[Updated2]: I have also noticed Determining if a process runs inside lxc/Docker, but it seems not working in this case, the content in /proc/1/cgroup of my container is:
8:perf_event:/
7:blkio:/
6:freezer:/
5:devices:/
4:memory:/
3:cpuacct:/
2:cpu:/docker/25ef774c390558ad8c4e9a8590b6a1956231aae404d6a7aba4dde320ff569b8b
1:cpuset:/
No /lxc/containerid
Solution 1:[1]
To check inside a Docker container if you are inside a Docker container or not can be done via /proc/1/cgroup. As this post suggests you can to the following:
Outside a docker container all entries in /proc/1/cgroup end on / as you can see here:
vagrant@ubuntu-13:~$ cat /proc/1/cgroup
11:name=systemd:/
10:hugetlb:/
9:perf_event:/
8:blkio:/
7:freezer:/
6:devices:/
5:memory:/
4:cpuacct:/
3:cpu:/
2:cpuset:/
Inside a Docker container some of the control groups will belong to Docker (or LXC):
vagrant@ubuntu-13:~$ docker run busybox cat /proc/1/cgroup
11:name=systemd:/
10:hugetlb:/
9:perf_event:/
8:blkio:/
7:freezer:/
6:devices:/docker/3601745b3bd54d9780436faa5f0e4f72bb46231663bb99a6bb892764917832c2
5:memory:/
4:cpuacct:/
3:cpu:/docker/3601745b3bd54d9780436faa5f0e4f72bb46231663bb99a6bb892764917832c2
2:cpuset:/
Solution 2:[2]
Docker creates .dockerenv and .dockerinit
Something like this should work.
#!/bin/bash
if [ -f /.dockerenv ]; then
echo "I'm inside matrix ;(";
else
echo "I'm living in real world!";
fi
Solution 3:[3]
We use the proc's sched (/proc/$PID/sched) to extract the PID of the process. The process's PID inside the container will differ then it's PID on the host (a non-container system).
For example, the output of /proc/1/sched on a container will return:
root@33044d65037c:~# cat /proc/1/sched | head -n 1
bash (5276, #threads: 1)
While on a non-container host:
$ cat /proc/1/sched | head -n 1
init (1, #threads: 1)
This helps to differentiate if you are in a container or not. eg you can do:
if [[ ! $(cat /proc/1/sched | head -n 1 | grep init) ]]; then {
echo in docker
} else {
echo not in docker
} fi
Solution 4:[4]
Thomas' solution as code:
running_in_docker() {
(awk -F/ '$2 == "docker"' /proc/self/cgroup | read non_empty_input)
}
Note
The read with a dummy variable is a simple idiom for Does this produce any output?. It's a compact method for turning a possibly verbose grep or awk into a test of a pattern.
Solution 5:[5]
Using Environment Variables
For my money, I prefer to set an environment variable inside the docker image that can then be detected by the application.
For example, this is the start of a demo Dockerfile config:
FROM node:12.20.1 as base
ENV DOCKER_RUNNING=true
RUN yarn install --production
RUN yarn build
The second line sets an envar called DOCKER_RUNNING that is then easy to detect. The issue with this is that in a multi-stage build, you will have to repeat the ENV line every time you FROM off of an external image. For example, you can see that I FROM off of node:12.20.1, which includes a lot of extra stuff (git, for example). Later on in my Dockerfile I then COPY things over to a new image based on node:12.20.1-slim, which is much smaller:
FROM node:12.20.1-slim as server
ENV DOCKER_RUNNING=true
EXPOSE 3000
COPY --from=base /build /build
CMD ["node", "server.js"]
Even though this image target server is in the same Dockerfile, it requires the ENV var to be defined again because it has a different base image.
If you make use of Docker-Compose, you could instead easily define an envar there. For example, your docker-compose.yml file could look like this:
version: "3.8"
services:
nodeserver:
image: michaeloryl/stackdemo
environment:
- NODE_ENV=production
- DOCKER_RUNNING=true
Solution 6:[6]
What works for me is to check for the inode number of the '/.' Inside the docker, its a very high number. Outside the docker, its a very low number like '2'. I reckon this approach would also depend on the FileSystem being used.
Example
Inside the docker:
# ls -ali / | sed '2!d' |awk {'print $1'}
1565265
Outside the docker
$ ls -ali / | sed '2!d' |awk {'print $1'}
2
In a script:
#!/bin/bash
INODE_NUM=`ls -ali / | sed '2!d' |awk {'print $1'}`
if [ $INODE_NUM == '2' ];
then
echo "Outside the docker"
else
echo "Inside the docker"
fi
Solution 7:[7]
We needed to exclude processes running in containers, but instead of checking for just docker cgroups we decided to compare /proc/<pid>/ns/pid to the init system at /proc/1/ns/pid. Example:
pid=$(ps ax | grep "[r]edis-server \*:6379" | awk '{print $1}')
if [ $(readlink "/proc/$pid/ns/pid") == $(readlink /proc/1/ns/pid) ]; then
echo "pid $pid is the same namespace as init system"
else
echo "pid $pid is in a different namespace as init system"
fi
Or in our case we wanted a one liner that generates an error if the process is NOT in a container
bash -c "test -h /proc/4129/ns/pid && test $(readlink /proc/4129/ns/pid) != $(readlink /proc/1/ns/pid)"
which we can execute from another process and if the exit code is zero then the specified PID is running in a different namespace.
Solution 8:[8]
golang code, via the /proc/%s/cgroup to check a process in a docker,include the k8s cluster
func GetContainerID(pid int32) string {
cgroupPath := fmt.Sprintf("/proc/%s/cgroup", strconv.Itoa(int(pid)))
return getContainerID(cgroupPath)
}
func GetImage(containerId string) string {
if containerId == "" {
return ""
}
image, ok := containerImage[containerId]
if ok {
return image
} else {
return ""
}
}
func getContainerID(cgroupPath string) string {
containerID := ""
content, err := ioutil.ReadFile(cgroupPath)
if err != nil {
return containerID
}
lines := strings.Split(string(content), "\n")
for _, line := range lines {
field := strings.Split(line, ":")
if len(field) < 3 {
continue
}
cgroup_path := field[2]
if len(cgroup_path) < 64 {
continue
}
// Non-systemd Docker
//5:net_prio,net_cls:/docker/de630f22746b9c06c412858f26ca286c6cdfed086d3b302998aa403d9dcedc42
//3:net_cls:/kubepods/burstable/pod5f399c1a-f9fc-11e8-bf65-246e9659ebfc/9170559b8aadd07d99978d9460cf8d1c71552f3c64fefc7e9906ab3fb7e18f69
pos := strings.LastIndex(cgroup_path, "/")
if pos > 0 {
id_len := len(cgroup_path) - pos - 1
if id_len == 64 {
//p.InDocker = true
// docker id
containerID = cgroup_path[pos+1 : pos+1+64]
// logs.Debug("pid:%v in docker id:%v", pid, id)
return containerID
}
}
// systemd Docker
//5:net_cls:/system.slice/docker-afd862d2ed48ef5dc0ce8f1863e4475894e331098c9a512789233ca9ca06fc62.scope
docker_str := "docker-"
pos = strings.Index(cgroup_path, docker_str)
if pos > 0 {
pos_scope := strings.Index(cgroup_path, ".scope")
id_len := pos_scope - pos - len(docker_str)
if pos_scope > 0 && id_len == 64 {
containerID = cgroup_path[pos+len(docker_str) : pos+len(docker_str)+64]
return containerID
}
}
}
return containerID
}
Solution 9:[9]
Based on Dan Walsh's comment about using SELinux ps -eZ | grep container_t, but without requiring ps to be installed:
$ podman run --rm fedora:31 cat /proc/1/attr/current
system_u:system_r:container_t:s0:c56,c299
$ podman run --rm alpine cat /proc/1/attr/current
system_u:system_r:container_t:s0:c558,c813
$ docker run --rm fedora:31 cat /proc/1/attr/current
system_u:system_r:container_t:s0:c8,c583
$ cat /proc/1/attr/current
system_u:system_r:init_t:s0
This just tells you you're running in a container, but not which runtime.
Didn't check other container runtimes but https://opensource.com/article/18/2/understanding-selinux-labels-container-runtimes provides more info and suggests this is widely used, might also work for rkt and lxc?
Solution 10:[10]
Python
def is_container() -> bool:
return os.path.exists('/proc/1/cgroup')
It works for both docker and k8s in 2021.
Good bye .dockerenv and .dockerinit
Sources
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Source: Stack Overflow