Sometimes we need to run multiple shell commands in docker when we start the docker container

To run multiple commands in docker, use /bin/bash -c and semicolon ;

 docker run image_name /bin/bash -c "cd /path/to/dir; sh run.sh"

Likewise, we can add multiple commands to the above line separated by a semicolon ;

Similarly, we can add && if we want to run the second command only if the first command is successful.

docker run image_name /bin/bash -c "cd /path/to/dir && sh run.sh"

You can also pipe commands inside Docker container, bash -c "<command1> | <command2>"

for example:

docker run image_name /bin/bash -c "ls -1a | wc -l"

And when bash is not available then you can use the sh -c.

docker run image_name sh -c "cd /path/to/dir && sh run.sh"