We introduce in this contribution the notion of partial Riemann problem. Recall that the Riemann problem describes a shock tube interaction between two given states ; the partial Riemann problem is a generalization of the previous concept and introduces the notion of boundary manifold. In what follows, we first recall very classical notions concerning gas dynamics and the associated Riemann problem. In a second part, we introduce the partial Riemann problem for general systems of conservation laws and proves that this problem admits a solution in some class of appropriate nonlinear waves. In section 3, we recall the linearized analysis with the method of characteristics, introduce the weak formulation of the Dirichlet boundary condition for nonlinear situations in terms of the partial Riemann problem and show that lot of physically relevant situations are described with this theoretical framework. In the last paragraph, we propose a practical implementation of the previous onsiderations with the finite volume method.