Docker cheat sheet

Field-tested Docker and Compose commands for running servers – searchable and copyable in one click. With warnings on commands that delete data.

38 commands

Images

List local images
docker images
Pull an image with a pinned tag
docker pull nginx:1.27
Build an image from the Dockerfile in this folder
docker build -t myapp:1.0 .
Retag an image for a registry
docker tag myapp:1.0 registry.example.com/myapp:1.0
Delete an image
docker rmi myapp:1.0
⚠ Careful: changes or deletes data

List running containers
docker ps
List all containers including stopped ones
docker ps -a
Start a detached container with a port mapping
docker run -d --name web -p 8080:80 nginx
Throwaway container with an interactive shell
docker run --rm -it alpine sh
Restart the container after reboot or crash
docker run -d --restart unless-stopped nginx
Stop a container gracefully (SIGTERM, then SIGKILL)
docker stop web
Force-stop and delete a container
docker rm -f web
⚠ Careful: changes or deletes data

Mount a named volume into a container
docker run -v data:/var/lib/mysql mariadb
Back up a volume to a tar archive
docker run --rm -v data:/d -v $(pwd):/b alpine tar czf /b/data.tgz -C /d .
Delete a volume – the data is gone
docker volume rm data
⚠ Careful: changes or deletes data
List networks
docker network ls
Create a user-defined bridge (DNS by container name)
docker network create appnet

Start the stack in the background
docker compose up -d
Rebuild images and start the stack
docker compose up -d --build
Follow the logs of one service live
docker compose logs -f web
Pull new images, recreate changed services
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d
Shell inside a service container
docker compose exec web sh
Stop the stack and remove containers and network
docker compose down
Like down, but also deletes the volumes
docker compose down -v
⚠ Careful: changes or deletes data

Disk usage by images, containers, volumes
docker system df
Delete untagged (dangling) images
docker image prune
⚠ Careful: changes or deletes data
Delete all unused volumes – data loss possible
docker volume prune
⚠ Careful: changes or deletes data
Delete stopped containers, unused networks and dangling images
docker system prune
⚠ Careful: changes or deletes data
Radical: everything unused incl. images and volumes
docker system prune -a --volumes
⚠ Careful: changes or deletes data

Limit memory to 512 MB
docker run -d --memory 512m nginx
Limit to 1.5 CPU cores
docker run -d --cpus 1.5 nginx
Change the limits of a running container
docker update --memory 1g --memory-swap 1g web
Set log rotation for a container
docker run -d --log-opt max-size=10m --log-opt max-file=3 nginx
Find OOM kills from the last hour
docker events --since 1h --filter event=oom