Docker simplifies application deployment, making it easier to build, ship, and run applications anywhere. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned developer, here are the key Docker commands you should have at your fingertips!
🚀 Why Do We Need Docker? 🐳
"It works on my machine" Problem 🛑
Developers often face issues where an application works on one system but fails on another due to different environments, dependencies, or OS configurations. Docker solves this by containerizing applications, ensuring consistency across different machines.
🔹Docker Basics
docker version # Check Docker version
docker info # Get system-wide information
docker help # Get help on Docker commands
🔹Managing Containers
docker ps # List running containers
docker ps -a # List all containers (including stopped ones)
docker run <image> # Run a container from an image
docker start <container_id> # Start a stopped container
docker stop <container_id> # Stop a running container
docker restart <container_id> # Restart a container
docker rm <container_id> # Remove a container
docker logs <container_id> # View container logs
🔹Working with Images
docker images # List all images
docker pull <image> # Download an image from Docker Hub
docker build -t <name> . # Build an image from a Dockerfile
docker rmi <image_id> # Remove an image
🔹Executing Commands in Containers
docker exec -it <container_id> bash # Access a running container
docker inspect <container_id> # Get detailed container info
docker cp <container_id>:/path/to/file . # Copy file from container
🔹Volumes & Storage
docker volume create <volume_name> # Create a volume
docker volume ls # List volumes
docker volume rm <volume_name> # Remove a volume
docker run -v <volume_name>:/app <image> # Mount a volume to a container
🔹Networking in Docker
docker network ls # List networks
docker network create <network_name> # Create a custom network
docker network connect <network_name> <container_id> # Connect a container to a network
docker network inspect <network_name> # Get details of a network
🔹Docker Compose
docker compose up -d # Start services in the background
docker compose down # Stop and remove containers
docker compose ps # List services
docker compose logs # View logs of all services
🔹Clean Up Docker Resources
docker system prune -a # Remove unused data, containers, and images
docker volume prune # Remove unused volumes
docker network prune # Remove unused networks
docker rmi $(docker images -q) # Remove all images
docker rm $(docker ps -aq) # Remove all containers
🔥 Mastering these commands will make your Docker experience much smoother! Which one do you use the most? Let me know in the comments! 👇
Top comments (5)
Docker compose commands no longer use the - . Now they're
docker compose ...Hello @jake_killpack , you are correct and I have updated the post, Thanks.
If you're using Docker Swarm and you don't mind setting up ssh key / ssh config locally for your worker nodes, and setup the authorized_keys for a docker user on the worker nodes (pretty easy), then knowing how to use the DOCKER_HOST=ssh://(node hostname here) variable to prefix docker commands and run them remotely is really powerful.
This includes being able to exec into a container on a worker node without anything other than ssh + docker. You definitely need to ssh to the node first to populate the known_hosts fully.
ssh isn't the only way of setting up, but it is the way I like.
Thanks for sharing
Good concise summary