# Executing rails commands from host Bash
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/executing-rails-commands-from-host-bash/189126
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Created:** [May 4, 2021, 11:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/executing-rails-commands-from-host-bash/189126 "2021-05-04T11:04:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sven2](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sven2)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2021, 11:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/executing-rails-commands-from-host-bash/189126/1 "2021-05-04T11:04:42Z")
Hi all,
I want to execute automated user clean up tasks from the host Bash. Manually, I run
```plaintext
/var/discourse/launcher enter app
rails c
UserDestroyer.new(Discourse.system_user).destroy(User.find_by_username_or_email("user@example.com"), delete_posts: false)
```
I have a long list of user names from a text file that need to be removed. Manually executing this is not reasonable. I tried to wrap the deletion command in a bash script. When executing rails c with the `launcher app` subcommand, the Redis connection fails:
```plaintext
/var/discourse/launcher run app "echo \"User.find_by_username_or_email('user@example.com')\" | rails c"
Failed to report error: Error connecting to Redis on localhost:6379 (Errno::EADDRNOTAVAIL) 2 Error connecting to Redis on localhost:6379 (Errno::EADDRNOTAVAIL) subscribe failed, reconnecting in 1 second.
```
However, when I compare the environments with `export` between `launcher enter app` and `launcher run app`, they look pretty much identical. What am I missing? `launcher run` starts in `/` while `launcher enter` directly enters `/var/www/discourse`. Using a cd before executing rails does not help.
Any hints? Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2021, 11:11am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/executing-rails-commands-from-host-bash/189126/2 "2021-05-04T11:11:36Z")
I think docker run launches a new container.
For things like that I use `docker exec` rather than `launcher`,which does a bunch of stuff you don’t need.
---
### Author:  [@sven2](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sven2)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2021, 11:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/executing-rails-commands-from-host-bash/189126/3 "2021-05-04T11:41:14Z")
Thanks for the reply. I find that the behavior of rails with `docker exec` is also very odd. Manually, it works perfectly well:
```plaintext
docker exec -it de7f5f6f649c '/bin/bash'
root@discourse-app:/# rails c
[1] pry(main)> User.find_by_username_or_email('myname')
```
But when I try to execute `rails c` from outside the container, I get the following problems:
```plaintext
docker exec -it de7f5f6f649c "/usr/local/bin/rails console"
OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: container_linux.go:367: starting container process caused: exec: "/usr/local/bin/rails console": stat /usr/local/bin/rails console: no such file or directory: unknown
```
But more interesting:
```plaintext
docker exec -it de7f5f6f649c '/bin/bash -c "/usr/local/bin/rails"'
OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: container_linux.go:367: starting container process caused: exec: "/bin/bash -c \"/usr/local/bin/rails\"": stat /bin/bash -c "/usr/local/bin/rails": no such file or directory: unknown
```
Why is this different at all?
---
### Author:  [@supermathie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/supermathie)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/executing-rails-commands-from-host-bash/189126/4 "2021-05-04T14:34:46Z")
This is expected; you are telling docker to execute the binary `/usr/local/bin/rails console` in the container. That is, a single file with an embedded space. This file doesn’t exist.
consider the following:
```plaintext
○ → docker run -i debian /bin/echo hello
hello
○ → docker run -i debian '/bin/echo hello'
docker: Error response from daemon: OCI runtime create failed: container_linux.go:367: starting container process caused: exec: "/bin/echo hello": stat /bin/echo hello: no such file or directory: unknown.
ERRO[0000] error waiting for container: context canceled
```
Quote the command the same way as if you were executing from inside the container:
```plaintext
○ → docker exec -i app rails runner 'puts "hello"'
hello
```
Using the example from the OP, this should work:
```plaintext
docker exec -i app rails runner 'UserDestroyer.new(Discourse.system_user).destroy(User.find_by_username_or_email("user@example.com"), delete_posts: false)'
```
---
### Author:  [@sven2](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sven2)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/executing-rails-commands-from-host-bash/189126/5 "2021-05-04T15:40:01Z")
Okay, it was unexpected for me because I did not RTFM. Thanks for the fast help.