Docker Managing containers Listing containers
Example
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
2bc9b1988080 redis "docker-entrypoint.sh" 2 weeks ago Up 2 hours 0.0.0.0:6379->6379/tcp elephant-redis
817879be2230 postgres "/docker-entrypoint.s" 2 weeks ago Up 2 hours 0.0.0.0:65432->5432/tcp pt-postgres
docker ps on its own only prints currently running containers.
To view all containers (including stopped ones), use the -a flag:
$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
9cc69f11a0f7 docker/whalesay "ls /" 26 hours ago Exited (0) 26 hours ago berserk_wozniak
2bc9b1988080 redis "docker-entrypoint.sh" 2 weeks ago Up 2 hours 0.0.0.0:6379->6379/tcp elephant-redis
817879be2230 postgres "/docker-entrypoint.s" 2 weeks ago Up 2 hours 0.0.0.0:65432->5432/tcp pt-postgres
To list containers with a specific status, use the -f command line option to filter the results. Here is an example of listing all containers which have exited:
$ docker ps -a -f status=exited
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
9cc69f11a0f7 docker/whalesay "ls /" 26 hours ago Exited (0) 26 hours ago
It is also possible to list only the Container IDs with the -q switch. This makes it very easy to operate on the result with other Unix utilities (such as grep and awk):
$ docker ps -aq
9cc69f11a0f7
2bc9b1988080
817879be2230
When launching a container with docker run --name mycontainer1 you give a specific name and not a random name (in the form mood_famous, such as nostalgic_stallman), and it can be easy to find them with such a command
docker ps -f name=mycontainer1
