How to access host from within a docker container in a VMware Fusion guest system?

Question

I've downloaded, installed and set up a Ubuntu 19.10 server running under VMware Fusion on my Mac running Catalina. I was able to connect the guest system to my host (after some help from Stack Exchange) by adding .host:/ /mnt/hgfs fuse.vmhgfs-fuse defaults,allow_other,uid=1000 0 0 to my /etc/fstab.

When I run a docker container, though, I can't access the /mnt/hgfs folder from within my container.

I have also connected docker on my Mac OS to the ubuntu-server using --driver generic. That shows the same symptoms. (even worse: the -v option just shows an empty folder).

What do I need to do to be able to access my Mac host files from within a docker container running under VMware Fusion?

Answer 1

OK, figured it out! The problem is getting access to /dev/fuse within the container.

The question turns out to be almost the same as https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48402218/fuse-inside-docker.

All you need to do is to grant access to the device /dev/fuse, and then you can mount the original shared folders:

docker run --device /dev/fuse -v /mnt/hgfs:/mnt/hgfs <image>

F.y.i., this also works for docker in parallels, with the difference that the parallels shared folder is /media/psf:

docker run --device /dev/fuse -v /media/psf:/media/psf <image>