Host and container connection

For host value, use:

host.docker.internal

Sometimes it doesn’t work after it worked before, so you can use this assuming you have Kubernetes installed. From comment.

kubernetes.docker.internal

On macOS, there is also another one you can use:

docker.for.mac.host.internal

This resolves to the internal IP address used by host for the Docker network. See the docs.

Examples

For example connecting to a database in a container from the command-line or a database GUI.

$ psql DBNAME -U USER -h host.docker.internal

Or connecting from a container to the host.

  • Host command: 
      $ python -m http.server 8000
  • Connect from inside container: 
      $ docker run --rm -it alpine sh
  $ apk add curl
  $ curl http://host.docker.internal:8000

Ports

Publish port 80 on the container as 8000 on the host.

$ docker run -p 8000:80 --name webserver nginx