How to Create, List & Delete Docker Containers on Linux

Create, List & Delete Docker Containers on Linux

Docker is an open-source project that automates the deployment of applications inside software containers, by providing an additional layer of abstraction and automation of operating-system-level virtualization on Linux.Docker uses the resource isolation 

features of the Linux kernel such as cgroups and kernel namespaces, and a union-capable filesystem such as aufs and others to allow independent "containers" to run within a single Linux instance, avoiding the overhead of starting and maintaining virtual machines.

• How to Install and Manage Docker on Ubuntu 15.10 and 14.04 LTS
• How to install Docker on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

Launch Docker Container

To launch a new Docker container using below command. This will start a new container and provide you access of that container with /bin/bash shell.

# docker run [OPTIONS] <IMAGE NAME> [COMMAND] [ARG...]

For example below command will create new docker container using image named "ubuntu". To list all available images use docker images command.

# docker run -i -t ubuntu /bin/bash

To exit from docker container type CTRL + P + Q. This will leave container running in background an provide you host system console. If you used exit command, it will stop the current container. Click here to read for more options about docker run command.

List Docker Containers

After existing from Docker container, execute below command to list all running containers.

# docker ps

CONTAINER ID     IMAGE     COMMAND        CREATED        STATUS        PORTS    NAMES
g25536g95fgd     ubuntu    "/bin/bash"    1 hours ago    Up 1 hours             first_ubuntu

By default Above command will list only running containers. To list all containers (including stopped container) use following command.

# docker ps -a

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE   COMMAND        CREATED        STATUS        PORTS    NAMES
g25536g95fgd   ubuntu  "/bin/bash"    1 hours ago    Up 1 hours             first_ubuntu
j555io5jkdkd   centos  "/bin/bash"    1 days ago     Exited (0) 24 hours ago   ubuntu-web

Start/Stop/Attach Container

You can start, stop or attach to any containers with following commands. To start container use following command.

# docker start <CONTAINER ID|NAME>

# docker stop <CONTAINER ID|NAME>

# docker attach <CONTAINER ID|NAME>

Drop Docker Container

Before deleting any container make sure that container is stopped. You can use ‘docker ps -a’ command to list status of containers. If container is still running first stop that container using given commands in above step.

Now use following command to delete single or multiple containers use following command.

# docker rm <CONTAINER ID|NAME> <CONTAINER ID|NAME>

You can also delete all stopped containers at once using following command.

# docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)

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