Docker Cheatsheet for Beginners

This cheatsheet is a reference for Docker beginners who want to quickly get started running and inspecting containers. For a comprehensive introduction to Docker, read the Docker overview guide and complete the Getting Started with Docker tutorial.

About Docker

Docker is a platform for developing, shipping, and running applications. It allows you to package and run applications in isolated environments called containers. Docker containers are created from read-only templates called images. Docker images are hosted in registries, such as Docker Hub.

Basic Commands

Running and Inspecting Containers

Pull an image from a registry:

$ docker pull <image>

List local images:

$ docker images

Run a container:

$ docker run <container>

Run a container in the background:

$ docker run -d <container>

List currently running containers:

$ docker ps

List all containers:

$ docker ps -a

List currently running containers and their resource usage statistics:

$ docker stats

Show a container’s logs:

$ docker logs <container>

Show a container’s metadata:

$ docker inspect <container>

Stop a container:

$ docker stop <container>

Cleaning up stopped containers and unused images

Remove a stopped container’s metadata:

$ docker rm <container>

Remove the metadata of all stopped containers:

$ docker container prune -f

Remove an image:

$ docker rmi <image>

Remove all unused images:

$ docker image prune --all