Docker Basic Commands

Introduction

We present here a quick introduction to Docker. We cover basic commands, as well as command combinations. Understanding the following should give system administrators confidence when it comes to using Docker efficiently.

The following can serve as a quick reference guide when deploying workloads on the ThreeFold Grid and using Docker in general.

We invite the readers to consult the official Docker documentation for more information.

Basic Commands

Install Docker Desktop and Docker Engine

You can install Docker Desktop and Docker Engine for Linux, MAC and Windows. Follow the official Docker documentation for the details.

Note that the quickest way to install Docker Engine is to use the convenience script:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh

Remove completely Docker

To completely remove docker from your machine, you can follow these steps:

List the docker packages
- ```
dpkg -l | grep -i docker
```

Purge and autoremove docker

apt-get purge -y docker-engine docker docker.io docker-ce docker-ce-cli docker-compose-plugin
apt-get autoremove -y --purge docker-engine docker docker.io docker-ce docker-compose-plugin

Remove the docker files and folders

rm -rf /var/lib/docker /etc/docker
rm /etc/apparmor.d/docker
groupdel docker
rm -rf /var/run/docker.sock

You can also use the command whereis docker to see if any Docker folders and files remain. If so, remove them with

List containers

List only running containers
- ```
docker ps
```
List all containers (running + stopped)
- ```
docker ps -a
```

Pull an image

To pull an image from Docker Hub:

Pull an image
- ```
docker pull <image_name>
```
Pull an image with the tag
- ```
docker pull <image_name>:tag
```
Pull all tags of an image
- ```
docker pull <image_name> -a
```

Push an image

To pull an image to Docker Hub:

Push an image
- ```
docker push <image_name>
```
Push an image with the tag
- ```
docker push <image_name>:tag
```
Push all tags of an image
- ```
docker pull <image_name> -a
```

Inspect and pull an image with GHCR

Inspect the docker image

docker inspect ghcr.io/<repository>/<image>:<tag>

Pull the docker image

docker pull ghcr.io/<repository>/<image>:<tag>

See a docker image (no download)

If you want to see a docker image without downloading the image itself, you can use Quay's Skopeo tool, a command line utility that performs various operations on container images and image repositories.

docker run --rm quay.io/skopeo/stable list-tags docker://ghcr.io/<repository>/<image>

Make sure to write the proper information for the repository and the image.

To install Skopeo, read this documentation.

Build a container

Use docker build to build a container based on a Dockerfile

Build a container based on current directory Dockerfile
- ```
docker build .
```

Build a container and store the image with a given name

Template
- ```
docker build -t "<image_name>:<tag>"
```
Example
- ```
docker build -t newimage:latest
```

Build a docker container without using the cache
- ```
docker build --no-cache
```

List all available docker images

docker images

Run a container

To run a container based on an image, use the command docker run.

Run an image
- ```
docker run <image_name>
```
Run an image in the background (run and detach)
- ```
docker run -d <image_name>
```
Run an image with CLI input
- ```
docker run -it <image_name>
```

You can combine arguments, e.g. docker run -itd.

You can also specify the shell, e.g. docker run -it <image_name> /bin/bash

Run a new command in an existing container

To run a new command in an existing container, use docker exec.

Execute interactive shell on the container
- ```
docker exec -it <container_name> sh
```

Bash shell into container

Bash shell into a container
- ```
docker exec -i -t /bin/bash
```
Bash shell into a container with root
- ```
docker exec -i -t -u root /bin/bash
```

Note: if bash is not available, you can use /bin/sh

Pass arguments with a bash script and a Dockerfile

You can do the following to pass arguments with a bash script and a Dockerfile.

# script_example.sh
#!/bin/sh

echo This is the domain: $env_domain
echo This is the name: $env_name
echo This is the password: $env_password

File Dockerfile

FROM ubuntu:latest

ARG domain

ARG name

ARG password

ENV env_domain $domain

ENV env_name $name

ENV env_password $password

COPY script_example.sh .

RUN chmod +x /script_example.sh

CMD ["/script_example.sh"]

Copy files from a container to the local computer

docker cp <container_id>:<file_path> <file_path_destination>

Delete all the containers, images and volumes

To delete all containers:
- ```
docker compose rm -f -s -v
```
To delete all images:
- ```
docker rmi -f $(docker images -aq)
```

To delete all volumes:

docker volume rm $(docker volume ls -qf dangling=true)

To delete all containers, images and volumes:

docker compose rm -f -s -v && docker rmi -f $(docker images -aq) && docker volume rm $(docker volume ls -qf dangling=true)

Kill all the Docker processes

To kill all processes:

killall Docker && open /Applications/Docker.app

Output full logs for all containers

The following command output the full logs for all containers in the file containers.log:

docker compose logs > containers.log

Resources Usage

Examine containers with size

docker ps -s

Examine disks usage

Basic mode
- ```
docker system df
```
Verbose mode
- ```
docker system df -v
```

Wasted Resources

Prune the Docker logs

docker system prune

Prune the Docker containers

You can use the prune function to delete all stopped containers:

docker container prune

Remove unused and untagged local container images

The following is useful if you want to clean up local filesystem:

docker image prune

Clean up and delete all unused container images

docker image prune -a

Clean up container images based on a given timeframe

To clean up container images created X hours ago, you can use the following template (replace with a number):

docker image prune -a --force --filter "until=<X>h"

To clean up container images created before a given date, you can use the following template (replace with the complete date):

docker image prune -a --force --filter "until=<date>"

Note: An example of a complete date would be 2023-01-04T00:00:00

Command Combinations

Kill all running containers

docker kill $(docker ps -q)

Stop all running containers

docker stop $(docker ps -a -q)

Delete all stopped containers

docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)

Delete all images

docker rmi $(docker images -q)

Update and stop a container in a crash-loop

docker update –restart=no && docker stop

References

Docker Manual - https://docs.docker.com/
Code Notary - https://codenotary.com/blog/extremely-useful-docker-commands

ThreeFold V3 Manual