The OP SolomonT reports that docker run with env do work:
docker run --rm -it -e "TERM=xterm-256color" govim bash -l
And Fernando Correia adds in the comments:
To get both color support and make
tmuxwork, I combined both examples:
docker exec -it my-container env TERM=xterm-256color script -q -c "/bin/bash" /dev/null
As chepner commented (earlier answer), .bash_profile is sourced (itis an interactive shell), since bash_prompt is called by .bash_profile.
But docker issue 9299 illustrates that TERM doesn’t seem to be set right away, forcing the users to open another bash with:
docker exec -ti test env TERM=xterm-256color bash -l
You have similar color issues with issue 8755.
To illustrate/reproduce the problem:
docker exec -ti $CONTAINER_NAME tty
not a tty
The current workaround is :
docker exec -ti `your_container_id` script -q -c "/bin/bash" /dev/null
Both are supposing you have a running container first, which might not be convenient here.