Docker Cheat Sheet

A complete cheat sheet can be found here

Lifecycle

• docker create creates a container but does not start it.
• docker run creates and starts a container in one operation.
• docker rename allows the container to be renamed.
• docker rm deletes a container.
• docker update updates a container's resource limits.

If you want a transient container, docker run --rm will remove the container after it stops.

If you want to map a directory on the host to a docker container, docker run -v $HOSTDIR:$DOCKERDIR.

Starting and Stopping

• docker start starts a container so it is running.
• docker stop stops a running container.
• docker restart stops and starts a container.
• docker pause pauses a running container, "freezing" it in place.
• docker attach will connect to a running container.

Info

• docker ps shows running containers.
• docker logs gets logs from container. (You can use a custom log driver, but logs is only available for json-file and journald in 1.10)
• docker inspect looks at all the info on a container (including IP address).
• docker events gets events from container.
• docker port shows public facing port of container.
• docker top shows running processes in container.
• docker stats shows containers' resource usage statistics.
• docker diff shows changed files in the container's FS.

docker ps -a shows running and stopped containers.

docker stats --all shows a running list of containers.

Executing Commands

• docker exec to execute a command in container.

To enter a running container, attach a new shell process to a running container called foo, use: docker exec -it foo /bin/bash.

Images

• docker images shows all images.
• docker build creates image from Dockerfile.

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Last update: January 19, 2023