distrobox-host-exec - Man Page

Examples (TL;DR)

Execute command on the host system from inside the Distrobox container: distrobox-host-exec "command"
Execute the ls command on the host system from inside the container: distrobox-host-exec ls

Description

distrobox-host-exec lets one execute command on the host, while inside of a container.

Under the hood, distrobox-host-exec uses host-spawn a project that lets us execute commands back on the host. If the tool is not found the user will be prompted to install it.

Synopsis

Just pass to “distrobox-host-exec” any command and all its arguments, if any.

--help/-h:      show this message
--verbose/-v:       show more verbosity
--version/-V:       show version
--yes/-Y:       Automatically answer yes to prompt:
                            host-spawn will be installed on the guest system
                            if host-spawn is not detected.
                            This behaviour is default when running in a non-interactive shell.

If no command is provided, it will execute “$SHELL”.

Alternatively, you can symlink a command name to distrobox-host-exec and then call that command by its name on the host, while inside of a container.

Examples

Run individual commands

distrobox-host-exec ls
distrobox-host-exec bash -l
distrobox-host-exec flatpak run org.mozilla.firefox
distrobox-host-exec podman ps -a

Drop into host shell

~$: distrobox-host-exec # No command, executes "$SHELL" on the host
~$: distrobox-host-exec # This command now runs on the host
You must run  distrobox-host-exec inside a container!

Symlinking host commands

Use the host command name to create a symlink to distrobox-host-exec. You can then call the host command from within the container.

~$: git # We do not have git in the container
bash: git: command not found
~$: sudo ln -s /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/git
~$: git version
git version 2.51.1

You can control podman on the host from within the container as follows:

~$: ln -s /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/podman
~$: ls -l /usr/local/bin/podman
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 51 Jul 11 19:26 /usr/local/bin/podman -> /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec
~$: podman version
...this is executed on host...

Info

Nov 2025 Distrobox User Manual