docker CLI & Dockerfile Cheat Sheet

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
1. docker CLI 2
1.1 Container Related Commands 2
1.2 Image Related Commands 4
1.3 Network Related Commands 5
1.4 Registry Related Commands 6
1.5 Volume Related Commands 6
1.6 All Related Commands 6
2. Dockerfile 6
About the Authors 8

Introduction

Containers allow the packaging of your application (and everything that you need to run it)
in a “container image”. Inside a container you can include a base operating system, libraries,
files and folders, environment variables, volume mount-points, and your application binaries.

A “container image” is a template for the execution of a container — It means that you can
have multiple containers running from the same image, all sharing the same behavior, which
promotes the scaling and distribution of the application. These images can be stored in a
remote registry to ease the distribution.

Once a container is created, the execution is managed by the container runtime. You can
interact with the container runtime through the “docker” command. The three primary
components of a container architecture (client, runtime, & registry) are diagrammed below:

Container Architecture
Client Runtime Registry

Daemon

Local
or

Remote API Containers Images Image registry

1. docker CLI
1.1 Container Related Commands
docker [CMD] [OPTS] [CONTAINER]

Examples
All examples shown work in Red Hat Enterprise Linux

1. Run a container in interactive mode:

#Run a bash shell inside an image
$ docker run -it rhel7/rhel bash
#Check the release inside a container
[root@.../]# cat /etc/redhat-release

2. Run a container in detached mode:

$ docker run --name mywildfly -d -p 8080:8080 jboss/wildfly

3. Run a detached container in a previously created container network:

$ docker network create mynetwork
$ docker run --name mywildfly-net -d --net mynetwork \
-p 8080:8080 jboss/wildfly

4. Run a detached container mounting a local folder inside the container:

$ docker run --name mywildfly-volume -d \
-v myfolder/:/opt/jboss/wildfly/standalone/deployments/ \
-p 8080:8080 jboss/wildflyjboss/wildfly

5. Follow the logs of a specific container:

$ docker logs -f mywildfly
$ docker logs -f [container-name|container-id]

6. List containers:
# List only active containers
$ docker ps
# List all containers
$ docker ps -a

7. Stop a container:
# Stop a container
$ docker stop [container-name|container-id]
# Stop a container (timeout = 1 second)
$ docker stop -t1

8. Remove a container:
# Remove a stopped container
$ docker rm [container-name|container-id]
# Force stop and remove a container
$ docker rm -f [container-name|container-id]
# Remove all containers
$ docker rm -f $(docker ps-aq)
# Remove all stopped containers
$ docker rm $(docker ps -q -f “status=exited”)

9. Execute a new process in an existing container:

# Execute and access bash inside a WildFly container
$ docker exec -it mywildfly bash
Command Description
daemon Run the persistent process that manages containers

attach Attach to a running container to view its ongoing output or to

control it interactively

commit Create a new image from a container’s changes

cp Copy files/folders between a container and the local filesystem

create Create a new container

diff Inspect changes on a container’s filesystem

exec Run a command in a running container

export Export the contents of a container’s filesystem as a tar archive

kill Kill a running container using SIGKILL or a specified signal

logs Fetch the logs of a container

pause Pause all processes within a container

port List port mappings, or look up the public-facing port that is NAT-
ed to the PRIVATE_PORT

ps List containers

rename Rename a container

restart Restart a container

rm Remove one or more containers

run Run a command in a new container

start Start one or more containers

stats Display one or more containers’ resource usage statistics

stop Stop a container by sending SIGTERM then SIGKILL after a grace

period

top Display the running processes of a container

unpause Unpause all processes within a container

update Update configuration of one or more containers

wait Block until a container stops, then print its exit code
1.2 Image Related Commands
docker [CMD] [OPTS] [IMAGE]

Examples
All examples shown work in Red Hat Enterprise Linux

1. Build an image using a Dockerfile:

#Build an image
$ docker build -t [username/]<image-name>[:tag] <dockerfile-path>
#Build an image called myimage using the Dockerfile in the same folder where the command was executed
$ docker build -t myimage:latest .

2. Check the history of an image:

# Check the history of the jboss/wildfly image
$ docker history jboss/wildfly
# Check the history of an image
$ docker history [username/]<image-name>[:tag]

3: List the images:

$ docker images

4: Remove an image from the local registry:

$ docker rmi [username/]<image-name>[:tag]

5. Tag an image:
# Creates an image called “myimage” with the tag “v1” for the image jboss/wildfly:latest
$ docker tag jboss/wildfly myimage:v1
# Creates a new image with the latest tag
$ docker tag <image-name> <new-image-name>
# Creates a new image specifying the “new tag” from an existing image and tag
$ docker tag <image-name>[:tag][username/] <new-image-name>.[:new-tag]

6. Exporting and importing an image to an external file:

# Export the image to an external file
$ docker save -o <filename>.tar
# Import an image from an external file
$ docker load -i <filename>.tar

7 Push an image to a registry:

$ docker push [registry/][username/]<image-name>[:tag]
 Command Description
build Build images from a Dockerfile

history Show the history of an image

images List images

import Create an empty filesystem image and import the contents of the
tarball into it

info Display system-wide information

inspect Return low-level information on a container or image

load Load an image from a tar archive or STDIN

pull Pull an image or a repository from the registry

push Push an image or a repository to the registry

rmi Remove one or more images

save Save one or more images to a tar archive

(streamed to STDOUT by default)

search Search one or more configured container registries for images

tag Tag an image into a repository

1.3 Network related commands

docker network [CMD] [OPTS]
Command Description
connect Connects a container to a network

create Creates a new network with the specified name

disconnect Disconnects a container from a network

inspect Displays detailed information on a network

ls Lists all the networks created by the user

rm Deletes one or more networks

 1.4 Network related commands
Default is https://index.docker.io/v1/
Command Description
login Log in to a container registry server. If no server is specified then
default is used

logout Log out from a container registry server. If no server is specified

then default is used

1.5 Volume related commands

docker volume [CMD] [OPTS]
Command Description
create Create a volume

inspect Return low-level information on a volume

ls Lists volumes

rm Remove a volume

1.6 Related commands

Command Description
events Get real time events from the server

inspect Show version information

2. Dockerfile

The Dockerfile provides the instructions to build a container image through the
`docker build -t [username/]<image-name>[:tag] <dockerfile-path>`
command. It starts from a previously existing Base image (through the FROM clause)
followed by any other needed Dockerfile instructions.

This process is very similar to a compilation of a source code into a binary output, but in
this case the output of the Dockerfile will be a container image.

Example Dockerfile
This example creates a custom WildFly container with a custom administrative user. It also
exposes the administrative port 9990 and binds the administrative interface publicly through
the parameter ‘bmanagement’.

# Use the existing WildFly image

FROM jboss/wildfly

# Add an administrative user

RUN /opt/jboss/wildfly/bin/add-user.sh admin Admin#70365 --silent

#Expose the administrative port

EXPOSE 8080 9990

#Bind the WildFly management to all IP addresses

CMD [“/opt/jboss/wildfly/bin/standalong.sh”, “-b”, “0.0.0.0”,
“-bmanagement”, “0.0.0.0”]
Using the example Dockerfile

# Build the WildFly image

$ docker build -t mywildfly .

#Run a WildFly server

$ docker run -it -p 8080:8080 -p 9990:9990 mywildfly

#Access the WildFly administrative console and log in with the credentials admin/Admin#70635
open http://<docker-daemon-ip>:9990 in a browser

Dockerfile instruction arguments

Command Description
FROM Sets the base image for subsequent

MAINTAINER Sets the author field of the generated images

RUN Execute commands in a new layer on top of the current image and
commit the results

CMD Allowed only once (if many then last one takes effect)

LABEL Adds metadata to an image

EXPOSE Informs container runtime that the container listens on the speci-
fied network ports at runtime

ENV Sets an environment variable

ADD Copy new files, directories, or remote file URLs from into the
filesystem of the container

COPY Copy new files or directories into the filesystem of the container

ENTRYPOINT Allows you to configure a container that will run as an executable

VOLUME Creates a mount point and marks it as holding externally mounted

volumes from native host or other containers

USER Sets the username or UID to use when running the image

WORKDIR Sets the working directory for any RUN, CMD, ENTRYPOINT, COPY,
and ADD commands

ARG Defines a variable that users can pass at build-time to the builder
using --build-arg

ONBUILD Adds an instruction to be executed later, when the image is used

as the base for another build

STOPSIGNAL Sets the system call signal that will be sent to the container to exit
 Example: Running a web server container

$ mkdir -p www/ # Create a directory (if it doesn’t already exist)

$ echo “Server is up” > www/index.html # Make a text file to serve later

$ docker run -d \ # Run process in a container as a daemon

-p 8000:8000 \ # Map port 8000 in container to 8000 on host
--name=pythonweb \ # Name the container “pythonweb”
-v `pwd`/www:/var/www/html \ # Map container html to host www directory
-w /var/www/html \ # Set working directory to /var/www/html
rhel7/rhel \ # Choose the rhel7/rhel directory
/bin/python \ # Run the Python command for
-m SimpleHTTPServer 8000 a simple web server listening to port 8000

$ curl <container-daemon-ip>:8000 # Check that the server is working

$ docker ps # See that the container is running

$ docker inspect pythonweb | less # Inspect the container
$ docker exec -it pythonweb bash # Open the running container and look inside

About the authors

Bachir Chihani, Ph.D. holds an engineering degree from Ecole
Superieure d’Informatique (Algeria) as well as a PhD degree in
Computer Science from Telecom SudParis (France). Bachir has
worked as a data engineer, software engineer, and research
engineer for many years. Previously, he worked as a network
engineer and got a CCNA Cisco-certification. Bachir has been
programming for many years in Scala/Spark, Java EE, Android
and Go. He has a keen interest in Open Source technologies
particularly in the fields of Automation, Distributed Computing
and Software/System Design and he likes sharing his experience
through blogging.
Bachir authored many research papers in the field of Context-
Awareness and reviewed many papers for International
conferences. He also served as a technical reviewer for many
books including Spring Boot in Action (Manning, 2016) and Unified
Log Processing (Manning, 2016).

Rafael Benevides is a Director of Developer Experience at Red

Hat. In his current role he helps developers worldwide to be more
effective in software development, and he also promotes tools
and practices that help them to be more productive. He worked
in several fields including application architecture and design.
Besides that, he is a member of Apache DeltaSpike PMC - a Duke’s
Choice Award winner project. And a speaker in conferences like
JUDCon, TDC, JavaOne and Devoxx
Twitter: @rafabene
LinkdeIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafaelbenevides
www.rafabene.com.