Interactive Use of Docker
While Docker is primarily intended as a management system for containerized services, it can also be used for interactive utilities.
Ephemeral Containers
To run an ephemeral container interactively, try:
docker run --interactive --tty --rm alpine:latest
The container will be cleaned up once it stops running.
Running Containers
To open a shell with a running container, try:
docker exec --interactive --tty my-container /bin/sh
A different shell binary can be used, but many images are purposefully slimmed down and will not have anything other than sh(1) installed.