Docker Client MX

Terminal, the comic

A key to the machine room.

The same kitchen as the other comics, one door further. Behind the kitchen is the machine it all runs on, and sometimes you have to go in there yourself, or talk to one cook in private.

1 The machine room

Behind the kitchen is the machine room: the machine the Docker engine runs on, such as your WSL distro. The terminal gives you a shell in there, as root, with the docker CLI working as usual.
HOSTThe machineroom, please.Here’sthe key.
The porter who opens it is a short-lived helper container with the rights to reach the machine. Close the terminal and the porter goes home: nothing stays behind.
Door locksbehind me.
No SSH to set up and no agent to install on that machine. The shell is there when you open it, and gone when you close it.
Nothing toinstall?Nothing.Not even SSH.

2 At a cook’s station

Open a shell in a running container from its Terminal tab: you talk to one cook, right at their station.
What’s in yourfridge, Ada?Let melook.
Talk to the cook as someone else: pick the user for a container’s shell, and the app remembers it for that container.
As the app user,please.Hello,app user.
Close the terminal, and the shell in the container stops with it. Nothing keeps running behind your back.
That’s allfor now.Bye, then.

3 A second pair of eyes

Next to the terminal on the machine sits Claude, in a tab of its own, reading what the terminal shows.
>_That error meansthe port is taken.
Claude only reads and suggests. A command it proposes goes into the prompt, and waits there until you press Enter.
Enter? Let meread it first.Your call.
In Docker Client MX: the Terminal page, a shell on the machine and in every container, with nothing left behind.
THE END

The cheat sheet

Every picture above, in Docker words.

The machine room
The Docker host, such as your WSL distro
The key to the machine room
A root shell on the host
The porter who opens it
A short-lived, privileged helper container
Talking to a cook at their station
A shell inside a container
Talking as someone else
The user of that shell
The second pair of eyes
Claude, beside the terminal
A command waiting for Enter
A proposed command in the prompt
Now open the machine room yourself.
A root shell on the Docker host and a shell in every container, with nothing to install and nothing left behind.
What the terminal does →Logs, the comic →Download for Windows