Sharing devices (webcam, USB drives, etc) with Docker

linux docker device
Ryan picture Ryan · Dec 16, 2015 · Viewed 18.8k times · Source

I have a need to share specific devices from /dev on my host Linux machine with my docker containers.

The --privileged flag works for sharing any devices in /dev that are present at the time docker run is called, but any subsequently added or removed devices do not propagate into the container.

I tried docker run -v=/dev:/dev ... but that ended up screwing with the permissions and ownership of files like /dev/pts, leading to the host machine to not be able to create new psuedo-terminals.

I also tried the --device flag, but that doesn't allow you to share a device that doesn't yet exist.

Finally, I tried sharing volumes for devices like -v=/dev/video0:/dev/video0 but if /dev/video0 doesn't exist before run, docker creates a directory there and a webcam will not take /dev/video0 when plugged in.

Is there any better way to get this supported functionality?

Answer

Auzias picture Auzias · Dec 16, 2015

You are looking check the flag --device

   --device=[]
      Add a host device to the container (e.g. --device=/dev/sdc:/dev/xvdc:rwm)

Have a nice day!

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