Docker image and container via docker commands (search, pull, run, ps, restart, attach, and rm)

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LinuX Containers (LXC)

The problem with Virtual Machines built using VirtualBox or VMWare is that we have to run entire OS for every VM. That's where Docker comes in. Docker virtualizes on top of one OS so that we can run Linux using technology known as LinuX Containers (LXC). LXC combines cgroups and namespace support to provide an isolated environment for applications. Docker can also use LXC as one of its execution drivers, enabling image management and providing deployment services.

Docker allows us to run applications inside containers. Running an application inside a container takes a single command: docker run.

Docker Registry - Repositories of Docker Images

We need to have a disk image to make the virtualization work. The disk image represents the system we're running on and they are the basis of containers.

Docker registry is a registry of already existing images that we can use to run and create containerized applications.

There are lots of communities and works already been done to build the system. Docker company supports and maintains its registry and the community around it.

We can search images within the registry hub, for example, the sample picture is the result from searching "flask".

Docker search

The Docker search command allows us to go and look at the registry in search for the images that we want.

$ docker search --help

Usage: docker search [OPTIONS] TERM

Search the Docker Hub for images

  --automated=false    Only show automated builds
  --no-trunc=false     Don't truncate output
  -s, --stars=0        Only displays with at least x stars

If we do the same search, Jenkins, we get exactly the same result as we got from the web:

$ docker search ubuntu
NAME                      DESCRIPTION                                    STARS  OFFICIAL   AUTOMATED
ubuntu                    Ubuntu is a Debian-based Linux operating s...  5969     [OK]       
rastasheep/ubuntu-sshd    Dockerized SSH service, built on top of of...  83                   [OK]
ubuntu-upstart            Upstart is an event-based replacement for ...  71       [OK]       
ubuntu-debootstrap        debootstrap --variant=minbase --components...  30       [OK]       
torusware/speedus-ubuntu  Always updated official Ubuntu docker imag...  27                   [OK]
nuagebec/ubuntu           Simple always updated Ubuntu docker images...  20                   [OK]
...

We got too many outputs, so we need to filter it out items with more than 10 stars:

$ docker search --filter=stars=20 ubuntu
NAME                      DESCRIPTION                                    STARS   OFFICIAL   AUTOMATED
ubuntu                    Ubuntu is a Debian-based Linux operating s...  5969      [OK]       
rastasheep/ubuntu-sshd    Dockerized SSH service, built on top of of...  83                   [OK]
ubuntu-upstart            Upstart is an event-based replacement for ...  71        [OK]       
ubuntu-debootstrap        debootstrap --variant=minbase --components...  30        [OK]       
torusware/speedus-ubuntu  Always updated official Ubuntu docker imag...  27                   [OK]
nuagebec/ubuntu           Simple always updated Ubuntu docker images...  20                   [OK]

Docker pull

Once we found the image we like to use it, we can use Docker's pull command:

$ docker pull --help

Usage:	docker pull [OPTIONS] NAME[:TAG|@DIGEST]

Pull an image or a repository from a registry

Options:
  -a, --all-tags                Download all tagged images in the repository
      --disable-content-trust   Skip image verification (default true)
      --help                    Print usage

The pull command will go up to the web site and grab the image and download it to our local machine.

$ docker pull ubuntu
Using default tag: latest
latest: Pulling from library/ubuntu
aafe6b5e13de: Pull complete 
0a2b43a72660: Pull complete 
18bdd1e546d2: Pull complete 
8198342c3e05: Pull complete 
f56970a44fd4: Pull complete 
Digest: sha256:f3a61450ae43896c4332bda5e78b453f4a93179045f20c8181043b26b5e79028
Status: Downloaded newer image for ubuntu:latest

The pull command without any tag will download all Ubuntu images though I've already done it. To see what Docker images are available on our machine, we use docker images:

$ docker images
REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             VIRTUAL SIZE
ubuntu              latest              5506de2b643b        4 weeks ago         199.3 MB

So, the output indicates only one image is currently on my local machine. We also see the image has a TAG inside of it.

As we can see from the command below, docker pull centos:latest, we can also be more specific, and download only the version we need. In Docker, versions are marked with tags.

$ docker pull centos:latest
centos:latest: The image you are pulling has been verified
5b12ef8fd570: Pull complete 
ae0c2d0bdc10: Pull complete 
511136ea3c5a: Already exists 
Status: Downloaded newer image for centos:latest

Here is the images on our local machine.

$ docker images
REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             VIRTUAL SIZE
centos              latest              ae0c2d0bdc10        2 weeks ago         224 MB
ubuntu              latest              5506de2b643b        4 weeks ago         199.3 MB

The command, docker images, returns the following columns:

REPOSITORY: The name of the repository, which in this case is "ubuntu".
TAG: Tags represent a specific set point in the repositories' commit history. As we can see from the list, we've pulled down different versions of linux. Each of these versions is tagged with a version number, a name, and there's even a special tag called "latest" which represents the latest version.
IMAGE ID: This is like the primary key for the image. Sometimes, such as when we commit a container without specifying a name or tag, the repository or the tag is <NONE>, but we can always refer to a specific image or container using its ID.
CREATED: The date the repository was created, as opposed to when it was pulled. This can help us assess how "fresh" a particular build is. Docker appears to update their master images on a fairly frequent basis.
VIRTUAL SIZE: The size of the image.

Docker run

Now we have images on our local machine. What do we do with them? This is where docker run command comes in.

$ docker run  --help

Usage: docker run [OPTIONS] IMAGE [COMMAND] [ARG...]

Run a command in a new container

  -a, --attach=[]            Attach to STDIN, STDOUT or STDERR.
  --add-host=[]              Add a custom host-to-IP mapping (host:ip)
  -c, --cpu-shares=0         CPU shares (relative weight)
  --cap-add=[]               Add Linux capabilities
  --cap-drop=[]              Drop Linux capabilities
  --cidfile=""               Write the container ID to the file
  --cpuset=""                CPUs in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1)
  -d, --detach=false         Detached mode: run the container in the background and print the new container ID
  --device=[]                Add a host device to the container (e.g. --device=/dev/sdc:/dev/xvdc)
  --dns=[]                   Set custom DNS servers
  --dns-search=[]            Set custom DNS search domains
  -e, --env=[]               Set environment variables
  --entrypoint=""            Overwrite the default ENTRYPOINT of the image
  --env-file=[]              Read in a line delimited file of environment variables
  --expose=[]                Expose a port from the container without publishing it to your host
  -h, --hostname=""          Container host name
  -i, --interactive=false    Keep STDIN open even if not attached
  --link=[]                  Add link to another container in the form of name:alias
  --lxc-conf=[]              (lxc exec-driver only) Add custom lxc options --lxc-conf="lxc.cgroup.cpuset.cpus = 0,1"
  -m, --memory=""            Memory limit (format: <number><optional unit>, where unit = b, k, m or g)
  --name=""                  Assign a name to the container
  --net="bridge"             Set the Network mode for the container
                               'bridge': creates a new network stack for the container on the docker bridge
                               'none': no networking for this container
                               'container:<name|id>': reuses another container network stack
                               'host': use the host network stack inside the container.  Note: the host mode gives the container full access to local system services such as D-bus and is therefore considered insecure.
  -P, --publish-all=false    Publish all exposed ports to the host interfaces
  -p, --publish=[]           Publish a container's port to the host
                               format: ip:hostPort:containerPort | ip::containerPort | hostPort:containerPort | containerPort
                               (use 'docker port' to see the actual mapping)
</name|id></optional></number>

docker run --help is a rather big help, and we have more:

  --privileged=false         Give extended privileges to this container
  --restart=""               Restart policy to apply when a container exits (no, on-failure[:max-retry], always)
  --rm=false                 Automatically remove the container when it exits (incompatible with -d)
  --security-opt=[]          Security Options
  --sig-proxy=true           Proxy received signals to the process (even in non-TTY mode). SIGCHLD, SIGSTOP, and SIGKILL are not proxied.
  -t, --tty=false            Allocate a pseudo-TTY
  -u, --user=""              Username or UID
  -v, --volume=[]            Bind mount a volume (e.g., from the host: -v /host:/container, from Docker: -v /container)
  --volumes-from=[]          Mount volumes from the specified container(s)
  -w, --workdir=""           Working directory inside the container

Currently we are on Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS machine (local):

$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS \n \l

Now we're going to Docker run centos image. This will create container based upon the image and execute the bin/bash command. Then it will take us into a shell on that machine that can continue to do things:

$ docker run -it centos:latest /bin/bash
[root@98f52715ecfa /]#

By executing it, we're now on a bash. If we look at /etc/redhat-release:

[root@98f52715ecfa /]# cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS Linux release 7.0.1406 (Core)

We're now on CentOS 7.0 on top of my Ubuntu 14.04 machine. We have an access to yum:

[root@98f52715ecfa /]# yum
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
You need to give some command
Usage: yum [options] COMMAND

List of Commands:

check          Check for problems in the rpmdb
check-update   Check for available package updates
...

Let's make a new file in our home directory:

[root@98f52715ecfa /]# ls
bin  dev  etc  home  lib  lib64  lost+found  media  mnt  opt  proc  root  run  sbin  selinux  srv  sys  tmp  usr  var
[root@98f52715ecfa /]# cd /home
[root@98f52715ecfa home]# ls
[root@98f52715ecfa home]# touch bogotobogo.txt
[root@98f52715ecfa home]# ls
bogotobogo.txt
[root@98f52715ecfa home]# exit
exit
k@laptop:~$

Docker ps - list containers

After making a new file on our Docker container, we exited from there, and we're back to our local machine with Ubuntu system.

$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES

The docker ps lists containers but currently we do not have any. That's because nothing is running. It shows only running containers.

We can list all containers using -a option:

$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS                     PORTS               NAMES
98f52715ecfa        centos:latest       "/bin/bash"         12 minutes ago      Exited (0) 5 minutes ago                       goofy_yonath        
f8c5951db6f5        ubuntu:latest       "/bin/bash"         4 hours ago         Exited (0) 4 hours ago                         furious_almeida

Docker restart

How can we restart Docker container?

$ docker restart --help

Usage: docker restart [OPTIONS] CONTAINER [CONTAINER...]

Restart a running container

  -t, --time=10      Number of seconds to try to stop for before killing the container. Once killed it will then be restarted. Default is 10 seconds.

We can restart the container that's already created:

$ docker restart 98f52715ecfa
98f52715ecfa

$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
98f52715ecfa        centos:latest       "/bin/bash"         20 minutes ago      Up 10 seconds                           goofy_yonath

Now we have one active running container, and it already executed the /bin/bash command.

Docker attach

The docker attach command allows us to attach to a running container using the container's ID or name, either to view its ongoing output or to control it interactively. We can attach to the same contained process multiple times simultaneously, screen sharing style, or quickly view the progress of our daemonized process.

$ docker attach --help

Usage: docker attach [OPTIONS] CONTAINER

Attach to a running container

  --no-stdin=false    Do not attach STDIN
  --sig-proxy=true    Proxy all received signals to the process (even in non-TTY mode). SIGCHLD, SIGKILL, and SIGSTOP are not proxied.

We can attach to a running container:

$ docker attach 98f52715ecfa
[root@98f52715ecfa /]# 

[root@98f52715ecfa /]# cd /home
[root@98f52715ecfa home]# ls
bogotobogo.txt

Now we're back to the CentOS container we've created, and the file we made is still there in our home directory.

Docker rm

We can delete the container:

[root@98f52715ecfa home]# exit
exit

$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS                      PORTS               NAMES
98f52715ecfa        centos:latest       "/bin/bash"         30 minutes ago      Exited (0) 14 seconds ago                       goofy_yonath        
f8c5951db6f5        ubuntu:latest       "/bin/bash"         5 hours ago         Exited (0) 5 hours ago                          furious_almeida   

$ docker rm f8c5951db6f5
f8c5951db6f5

$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS                     PORTS               NAMES
98f52715ecfa        centos:latest       "/bin/bash"         32 minutes ago      Exited (0) 2 minutes ago                       goofy_yonath

We deleted the Ubuntu container and now we have only one container, CentOS.

Remove all images and containers

We use Docker, but working with it creates lots of images and containers. So, we may want to remove all of them to save disk space.

To delete all containers: