How to Create, List & Delete Docker Containers on Linux

In our previous tutorials you have learned about installation of Docker engine on CentOS/RHEL and Ubuntu operating system and pulled images from Docker hub. After that created containers with images. This tutorial will help you to create, list & delete docker containers on Linux machine.

#1. Launch Docker Container

To launch a new Docker container using below command. This will start a new container and provide you access to that container with /bin/bash shell.

# docker run [OPTIONS] <IMAGE NAME> [COMMAND] [ARG...]

For example below command will create new docker container using the image named “ubuntu”. To list all available images use docker images command.

# docker run -i -t ubuntu /bin/bash

To exit from docker container type CTRL + P + Q. This will leave container running in background an provide you host system console. If you used exit command, it will stop the current container. Click here to read for more options about docker run command.

#2. List Docker Containers

After existing from Docker container, execute below command to list all running containers.

# docker ps

CONTAINER ID     IMAGE     COMMAND        CREATED        STATUS        PORTS    NAMES
f2582758af13     ubuntu    "/bin/bash"    2 hours ago    Up 2 hours             first_ubuntu

By default Above command will list only running containers. To list all containers (including stopped container) use following command.

# docker ps -a

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE   COMMAND        CREATED        STATUS        PORTS    NAMES
f2582758af13   ubuntu  "/bin/bash"    2 hours ago    Up 2 hours             first_ubuntu
6b5b5a969241   centos  "/bin/bash"    2 days ago     Exited (0) 24 hours ago   ubuntu-web

#3. Start/Stop/Attach Container

You can start, stop or attach to any containers with following commands. To start container use following command.

# docker start <CONTAINER ID|NAME>

To stop container use following command.

# docker stop <CONTAINER ID|NAME>

To attach to currently running container use following command.

# docker attach <CONTAINER ID|NAME>

#4. Drop Docker Container

Before deleting any container make sure that container is stopped. You can use ‘docker ps -a’ command to list status of containers. If container is still running first stop that container using given commands in above step.

Now use the following command to delete single or multiple containers.

# docker rm <CONTAINER ID|NAME> <CONTAINER ID|NAME>

You can also delete all stopped containers at once using the following command.

# docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)