Docker Commands

Docker commands cheatsheet.

Build images, run containers, and use Compose — the Docker commands you actually need. Tap to copy.

Images

docker pull <image>Download an image from a registry

docker build -t <name> .Build an image from the Dockerfile here

docker imagesList local images

docker rmi <image>Remove an image

Containers

docker run <image>Create and start a container from an image

docker run -d -p 8080:80 <image>Run detached and map a port

docker psList running containers

docker ps -aList all containers, including stopped

docker stop <id>Stop a running container

docker rm <id>Remove a stopped container

docker exec -it <id> bashOpen an interactive shell in a container

docker logs -f <id>Stream a container's logs

Compose

docker compose upStart the services in docker-compose.yml

docker compose up -dStart services in the background

docker compose downStop and remove the compose services

docker compose buildBuild or rebuild compose services

docker compose logs -fFollow logs for all services

Cleanup

docker system pruneRemove unused containers, networks and images

docker volume lsList volumes

docker network lsList networks

The core loop

Docker has a lot of subcommands, but daily work revolves around a short cycle: build an image from a Dockerfile, run a container from that image, and ps to see what's running. The mental model that makes Docker click: an image is a frozen snapshot of an app and everything it needs, and a container is a running instance of that image. Once that distinction is clear, the commands stop feeling arbitrary.

Getting inside and debugging

The commands people reach for when something's wrong are worth knowing cold. docker logs <id> shows a container's output, and docker exec -it <id> bash drops you into a shell inside a running container so you can poke around as if you'd SSH'd in. docker ps -a reveals stopped containers too, which is often where the clue to a crash is hiding. These three turn Docker from a black box into something you can inspect.

Compose and cleanup

For anything with more than one moving part — an app plus a database, say — docker compose up -d brings the whole stack up in the background from a single YAML file, and docker compose down tears it back down. One housekeeping note: images, stopped containers and volumes pile up and quietly eat disk space, so docker system prune is the periodic cleanup worth remembering. These pair naturally with the kubectl commands when you move from single containers to orchestration, and the Linux commands for everything around them.