# Run a command in my dev container without stopping the server

**URL:** <https://community.okteto.com/t/run-a-command-in-my-dev-container-without-stopping-the-server/35>\
**Category:** How Do I?\
**Created:** [April 26, 2022, 6:05pm UTC](https://community.okteto.com/t/run-a-command-in-my-dev-container-without-stopping-the-server/35 "2022-04-26T18:05:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![maroshii](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.okteto.com/maroshii/32/12_2.png) [@maroshii](https://community.okteto.com/u/maroshii)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 6:05pm UTC](https://community.okteto.com/t/run-a-command-in-my-dev-container-without-stopping-the-server/35/1 "2022-04-26T18:05:00Z")

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I have my development container up and running but I want to run some commands without stopping the server process. Is there a way to do this?

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**Author:** ![Jacob](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.okteto.com/jacob/32/372_2.png) [@Jacob](https://community.okteto.com/u/Jacob)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://community.okteto.com/t/run-a-command-in-my-dev-container-without-stopping-the-server/35/2 "2022-04-26T19:46:44Z")

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If you just want to run a few commands and don’t need a separate terminal session then you can use `okteto exec` [Okteto CLI | Okteto Documentation](https://www.okteto.com/docs/reference/cli/#exec)

If you want a separate session then you can ssh into the dev container using the ssh config entry generated by okteto. For example, if I am developing on the api of movies sample up, [GitHub - okteto/movies: React + Node multi service application](https://github.com/okteto/movies), by using `okteto up` to create a dev container for the api. I can create a second terminal and run `ssh api.okteto` and I’ll have another shell in the development container.

 ![Screen Shot 2022-04-26 at 1.43.47 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/okteto/original/1X/489c89e578af353e9c3e7a4524b925486f61fecf.png)