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apptainer exec — Execute a command within an Apptainer container. See also: `apptainer run`, `apptainer shell`. More

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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apptainer execcommandapptainerexecutecliwithincontainer

linux

Problem

How to use the apptainer exec command: Execute a command within an Apptainer container. See also: apptainer run, apptainer shell. More information: <https://apptainer.org/docs/user/main/cli/apptainer_exec.html>.

Solution

apptainer exec — Execute a command within an Apptainer container. See also: apptainer run, apptainer shell. More information: <https://apptainer.org/docs/user/main/cli/apptainer_exec.html>.

Execute a command inside a container:

apptainer exec {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}}

Execute a command with arguments:

apptainer exec {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}} {{arg1 arg2 ...}}

Execute a command with a bind mount from host to container:

apptainer exec {{[-B|--bind]}} {{path/to/source}}:{{path/to/destination}} {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}}

Execute a command with environment variables:

apptainer exec --env {{variable}}={{value}} {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}}

Execute a command in fully isolated mode (contained filesystem, PID, IPC, and clean environment):

apptainer exec {{[-C|--containall]}} {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}}

Execute a command with a writable temporary filesystem overlay:

apptainer exec --writable-tmpfs {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}}

Execute a command with NVIDIA GPU support:

apptainer exec --nv {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}}

Display help:

apptainer exec {{[-h|--help]}}

Code Snippets

Execute a command inside a container

apptainer exec {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}}

Execute a command with arguments

apptainer exec {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}} {{arg1 arg2 ...}}

Execute a command with a bind mount from host to container

apptainer exec {{[-B|--bind]}} {{path/to/source}}:{{path/to/destination}} {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}}

Execute a command with environment variables

apptainer exec --env {{variable}}={{value}} {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}}

Execute a command in fully isolated mode (contained filesystem, PID, IPC, and clean environment)

apptainer exec {{[-C|--containall]}} {{path/to/image.sif}} {{command}}

Context

tldr-pages: linux/apptainer exec

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