On-demand Disposable CLI

Disposable CLI Environments

With this command you can launch a standalone cli container within the scope of the current directory. The directory is mapped into /var/www in the container.

This gives you access to all of the tools available in docksal/cli without launching an entire Docksal stack. This also eliminates the need of having any of the console tools present in docksal/cli installed locally on the host.

Example Uses

Run a Script in a Disposable Environment

You can run any Linux command or script (Bash, PHP, Python, Ruby, Nodejs, etc.) in a safe, disposable environment:

fin run-cli <command or script>

The container will only have access to the current directory scope on the host. The results of the execution can be stored in the same directory.

Any other changes happen inside of the container only and are reset once the container is stopped.

Create a Drupal 8 Composer-based Project from Scratch

fin run-cli composer create-project drupal/recommended-project myproject --no-interaction

You can then initialize the default Docksal stack (LAMP) for the new project with just a few more steps:

cd myproject
fin init

Data Persistence

Generally, anything you do inside of a fin run-cli environment is gone once the container is stopped. You can install new packages, run scripts, break things, etc., without the risk of damaging your host system. The next time you do fin run-cli, the run-cli environment is started fresh and clean.

The only exceptions are:

  • the current directory on the host (mapped to /var/www inside the container)
  • the $HOME (/home/docker) directory inside the container

With /home/docker directory persisting between fin run-cli executions you get the benefit of a shared cache space.

You have the option to override this behavior and launch the container without the persistent $HOME volume:

fin run-cli --clean

Note: this does not drop the shared $HOME volume used for regular fin run-cli executions.

You can wipe the shared $HOME volume with:

fin run-cli --cleanup

See fin help run-cli for more details.