Basic Docker Commands for Images and Containers

Demo for these commands is available in the following YouTube video

1. Check Docker Version

docker version

2. Check the detailed information of Docker installed

docker info

Docker commands - Images

3. Search an image in Docker hub

docker search ubuntu

docker search `<<imagename>>` | head -20
docker search ubuntu | head -20
#  will search ubuntu images in the dockerhub and limit the search result to only 20

Note: head command works on bash terminal, for PowerShell terminal in windows use select -first 10

docker search ubuntu | select -first 10

4. Pull and Image from Docker hub

docker pull imagename
docker pull nginx

5. Check image history (layers in an image)

docker history imagename
docker history nginx

6. Pull a specific version of an image

docker pull imagename:versiontag
docker pull busybox:1.24

7. Verify Downloaded docker images

docker images

8. Remove Docker images

docker rmi `<<imagename>>`
docker rmi nginx

9. Download and run an image in docker container using run command

docker run imagename
docker run --name cntnginx -d nginx
# --name to specify a name for the running container. In this example, it is cntnginx
# -d to run the container in background (detached mode)

Docker Commands - Containers

10. List running containers

docker ps

11. List all containers (This includes containers in all state)

docker ps -a

12. Inspect container object

docker inspect containername/containerid
docker inspect cntnginx

13. Print the stats for a running container

docker stats containername/containerid
docker stats cntnginx

14. Pause a running container

docker pause containername/containerid
docker pause cntnginx

15. Unpause a paused container

docker unpause containername/containerid
docker unpause cntnginx

16. Kill a running container

docker kill containername/containerid
docker kill cntnginx

17. Start a killed container

docker start containername/containerid
docker start cntnginx

18. Stop a running container

docker stop containername/containerid
docker stop cntnginx

19. Delete a container

docker rm containername/containerid
docker rm cntnginx

20. To remove all stopped containers

docker container prune

21. Export a container as an image (.tar file)

docker export containername/contianerid -o filename.tar
docker run --name newnginxcontainer -d nginx
docker export newnginxcontainer -o test.tar

Note: You must have permissions on the folder where you are saving the test.tar use chmod 777 ./ for permissions in case if you are facing an permission denied error.

22. Import an exported container image (.tar file)

docker import remoteurl/imagename.tar
docker import test.tar