How to edit Docker container files from the host?

Question

Now that I found a way to expose host files to the container (-v option) I would like to do kind of the opposite:

How can I edit files from a running container with

Answer 1

Here's the script I use:

#!/bin/bash
IFS=$'\n\t'
set -euox pipefail


CNAME="$1"
FILE_PATH="$2"

TMPFILE="$(mktemp)"
docker exec "$CNAME" cat "$FILE_PATH" > "$TMPFILE"
$EDITOR "$TMPFILE"
cat "$TMPFILE" | docker exec -i "$CNAME" sh -c 'cat > '"$FILE_PATH"
rm "$TMPFILE"

and the gist for when I fix it but forget to update this answer: https://gist.github.com/dmohs/b50ea4302b62ebfc4f308a20d3de4213