Docker Cheatsheet

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 unpause will unpause a running container.
• docker wait blocks until running container stops.
• docker kill sends a SIGKILL to a running container.
• docker attach will connect to a running container.

Import / Export

• docker cp copies files or folders between a container and the local filesystem.
• docker export turns container filesystem into tarball archive stream to STDOUT.

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.

Lifecycle

• docker images shows all images.
• docker import creates an image from a tarball.
• docker build creates image from Dockerfile.
• docker commit creates image from a container, pausing it temporarily if it is running.
• docker rmi removes an image.
• docker load loads an image from a tar archive as STDIN, including images and tags (as of 0.7).
• docker save saves an image to a tar archive stream to STDOUT with all parent layers, tags & versions (as of 0.7).
• docker images shows all images.
• docker import creates an image from a tarball.
• docker build creates image from Dockerfile.
• docker commit creates image from a container, pausing it temporarily if it is running.
• docker rmi removes an image.
• docker load loads an image from a tar archive as STDIN, including images and tags (as of 0.7).
• docker save saves an image to a tar archive stream to STDOUT with all parent layers, tags & versions (as of 0.7).

Info

• docker history shows history of image.
• docker tag tags an image to a name (local or registry).
• 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 history shows history of image.
• docker tag tags an image to a name (local or registry).