Docker Reference

Kip Landergren

June 25, 2019 (Updated: December 04, 2023)

My cheat sheet for docker covering documentation links and common commands to build manage images and containers.

Documentation

Build from file Dockerfile.custom relative to the current working directory:

docker build --file Dockerfile.custom .

list containers

docker ps

list images

docker images

run a container named “test-nginx” from image “nginx” and automatically remove the container when it exits:

docker run --name test-nginx --rm nginx

Removing unused data:

docker system prune --help

Get a shell in a running container:

docker exec -it mycontainer bash

List containers:

docker-compose ps

List services:

docker-compose ps --services

Rebuild a specific service:

docker-compose up --detach --build SERVICE_NAME

Work with logs:

docker-compose logs --follow SERVICE_NAME

docker-compose logs --tail=50 SERVICE_NAME

docker-compose logs --tail=50 --follow SERVICE_NAME

Dockerfile: text file containing all necessary instructions to assemble an image
container: a runnable instance of an image. also a loosely isolated environment
container, service, stack: how docker describes app building, from bottom of hierarchy to the top. a service is how containers behave in production. a stack defines all interactions of services
image: a read-only template with instructions for creating a compute environment

To set up Docker environment variables to use the Docker daemon in minikube, allowing easy access to built images:

eval $(minikube docker-env)

and to tear down:

eval $(minikube docker-env --unset)