distrobox-host-exec

Execute command on the host system from inside the Distrobox container

$ distrobox-host-exec "[command]"

$ distrobox-host-exec ls

distrobox-host-exec [OPTIONS] [--] COMMAND [ARGS...]

-h, --help
    Print help message and exit

-V, --version
    Print version information and exit

-v, --verbose
    Enable verbose output for debugging

distrobox-host-exec enables seamless execution of host system binaries and commands directly from within a Distrobox container. It temporarily modifies the shell environment by prepending host binary paths (like /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin) to PATH, unsets container-specific variables (e.g., DBX_CONTAINER_HOME), and preserves essential host environment variables. This bridges container isolation with host capabilities, ideal for running hardware-specific tools like nvidia-smi, fwupdmgr, or systemctl without exporting the container or switching sessions.

Invoked as distrobox-host-exec <command> [args], it spawns a new shell process with adjusted env, exec'ing the command natively on host libraries. No container restart needed; works in any entered Distrobox. Useful for developers needing host GPU access, system monitoring, or package managers conflicting in containers.

Graphical apps need X11/Wayland forwarding; host commands requiring non-exported mounts (e.g., /proc specific) may fail. Avoid for security-sensitive ops due to host privilege escalation potential.

distrobox-host-exec nvidia-smi
distrobox-host-exec fwupdmgr refresh
distrobox-host-exec systemctl --machine=foo status

Runs /usr/bin/env -i with host PATH/LD_LIBRARY_PATH, exec'ing command via container's bind-mounted host bins.

Introduced in early Distrobox releases (~2021, v1.2+) by Luca Weichselbaumer (89luca89) to enhance host-container integration, evolving with OCI backend support.

distrobox(1), distrobox-enter(1), podman-run(1)