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Docker CLI Plugin

docker-run-export can be invoked as a Docker CLI plugin, which means you can use docker dre instead of typing the full binary name. Every subcommand works the same way:

docker dre run --dre-format compose alpine:latest
# equivalent to
docker-run-export run --dre-format compose alpine:latest

How It Works

Docker discovers plugins by scanning specific directories for executables named docker-<name>. The docker-run-export plugin binary is named docker-dre (Docker CLI plugin names must be lowercase alphanumeric with no hyphens). When Docker finds this binary, running docker dre <subcommand> invokes it automatically.

Plugin Directories

Docker searches these directories for plugins:

  • Per-user: ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dre
  • System-wide (Linux): /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-dre or /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-dre
  • System-wide (Homebrew): $(brew --prefix)/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-dre

Automatic Setup by Distribution Channel

The supported distribution channels install the plugin automatically:

  • Debian/Ubuntu: the .deb package installs both /usr/bin/docker-run-export (for direct invocation) and /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-dre (for Docker CLI plugin lookup).
  • Homebrew: brew install dokku/repo/docker-run-export places the binary under bin/ and symlinks it into Homebrew's lib/docker/cli-plugins/.
  • Install script: downloads the appropriate release tarball for your OS/architecture and installs the binary at ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dre.
  • From source: make install builds for your current OS/architecture and copies the binary into ~/.docker/cli-plugins/.

Verifying the Plugin

After installation, confirm that Docker sees the plugin:

docker dre version

You can also check that docker --help lists dre under the "Plugin commands" section.

Direct Invocation

You can always run the binary directly without the Docker CLI plugin mechanism. This is useful if Docker is not installed on the machine where you are generating configuration:

docker-run-export run --dre-format compose alpine:latest