Can't access existing containers

[Alexandr Bashkatov]

Hi everyone,
let's say I have nodejs and postgres containers in my pipeline config and want to run `docker cp` and `docker exec` against postgres container.
My trouble is I can't supply container id to docker cp or exec because even `docker ps -a` gives nothing, not saying about `docker ps -qf somefilter`.
My pipeline
```yaml
image: node:8
pipelines:
  pull-requests:
    '**':
      - step:
        - script:
          - yarn

          # - docker cp && docker exec here
          # - docker ps -a
          - npm test
    services:
      - postgres
      - docker

definitions:
  services:
    postgres:
      image: mdillon/postgis
```

Thanks in advance

[Philip Hodder · Accepted solution]

Hello Alexandr,

Pipeline Services are not exposed by the Docker Daemon, which is why they are not showing in `docker ps`.

What are you trying to do? If you're trying to just interact with the database normally, then you should be able to use a normal Postgres client (such as psql), as the necessary ports are already exposed in your build container.

You will need to have psql installed in your image. I don't think it's in the node image so you can either:

• Install it with apt-get as part of your build script.
• Create a new Docker image that already has it installed when your build starts.

Thanks,

Phil