Docker CLI Reference

The Docker commands you use daily — one page per command with the actual flags, real examples, and the gotchas. Docker 24+ with the modern docker compose plugin (not the legacy standalone docker-compose).

Container Lifecycle

docker run

Creates and starts a new container from a specified image in a single step. This is the primary command for launching workloads and supports extensive configuration for networking, storage, and process control.

docker ps

Lists containers along with their status, ports, and identifiers. By default it shows only running containers unless -a is passed.

docker exec

Runs a new command inside an already running container. Commonly used for shells, debugging, or one-off maintenance tasks.

docker logs

Fetches the stdout/stderr logs of a container. Works with the json-file and local logging drivers; other drivers require querying the destination directly.

docker stop

Gracefully stops one or more running containers by sending SIGTERM and then SIGKILL after a timeout. Use docker kill for an immediate SIGKILL.

docker start

Starts one or more previously created or stopped containers using their existing configuration. Unlike docker run it does not create a new container.

docker restart

Stops and then starts one or more containers, preserving their configuration. Equivalent to docker stop followed by docker start.

docker rm

Removes one or more stopped containers from the host. Use -f to force-remove a running container.

docker cp

Copies files and directories between a container's filesystem and the host. Works on both running and stopped containers.

Images

docker images

Lists images stored in the local image store with their repository, tag, ID, and size. Alias for docker image ls.

docker rmi

Removes one or more images from the local image store. Alias for docker image rm.

docker tag

Creates a new tag (alias) that refers to an existing image. Tagging is required before pushing to a registry whose hostname is not Docker Hub.

Build

docker build

Builds an image from a Dockerfile and a build context. In Docker 23+ this invokes BuildKit by default and supports multi-platform, secrets, and cache mounts.

Networking

docker network

Manages Docker networks — create, inspect, connect, disconnect, and remove user-defined bridges, overlays, or macvlan networks. Enables container-to-container DNS resolution by name.

Volumes

docker volume

Manages persistent named volumes for containers — create, list, inspect, remove, and prune. Named volumes survive container removal and are the recommended storage mechanism over bind mounts for stateful data.

Compose (Multi-Container)

docker compose

Manages multi-container applications defined in a compose.yaml file. This is the Compose V2 plugin invoked via 'docker compose' (space); the legacy hyphenated 'docker-compose' binary is deprecated.

Inspection & Debug

docker inspect

Returns low-level JSON metadata about Docker objects — containers, images, networks, volumes, and more. Supports Go template formatting for extracting specific fields.

docker top

Displays the running processes inside a container, similar to running ps on the host restricted to that container's PID namespace. Accepts standard ps flags after the container name.

Registry

docker pull

Downloads an image or repository from a registry into the local image store. Defaults to Docker Hub and the latest tag when unspecified.

docker push

Uploads a local image or repository to a container registry. The image must be tagged with the registry hostname and repository path before pushing.