How to Install Docker on Debian 9 (Stretch)

Docker is a container-based application framework, which wraps a specific application with all its dependencies in a container. Docker containers can easily to ship to the remote location on start there without making entire application setup. This tutorial will help you to install Docker on Debian 9 Stretch.

Step 1 – Prerequsites

The very first step is to remove any default Docker packages from the system before installation Docker on a Linux VPS. Execute commands to remove unnecessary Docker versions.

sudo apt-get purge docker lxc-docker docker-engine docker.io

Now install some required packages on your system for installing Docker on Debian system. Run the below commands to do this:

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg2 software-properties-common

Step 2 – Setup Docker Repository

Now import dockers official GPG key to verify packages signature before installing them with apt-get. Run the below command on terminal.

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | sudo apt-key add -

After that add the Docker repository on your Debian system which contains Docker packages including its dependencies. You must have to enable this repository to install Docker on Debian.

sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian stretch stable"

Step 3 – Install Docker on Debian 9

Your system is now ready for Docker installation. Run the following commands to upgrade apt index and then install Docker community edition on Debian.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce

After successful installation of Docker community edition, the service will start automatically, Use below command to verify service status.

sudo systemctl status docker

Your system is now ready for running Docker containers. Use our Docker Tutorial for Beginners to working with Docker.

Step 4 – How to Use Docker

After installation of Docker on a Linux. Here are some basic details for search and download Docker images, launch containers and manage them.

Search Docker Images

First of all search Docker container images from Docker hub. For example, below command will search all images with Debian and list as output.

docker search debian

Download Docker Images

Now download the Docker container with name debian on your local system using following commands.

docker pull debian

Using default tag: latest
latest: Pulling from library/debian
55cbf04beb70: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:f1f61086ea01a72b30c7287adee8c929e569853de03b7c462a8ac75e0d0224c4
Status: Downloaded newer image for debian:latest

Now make sure that the above images have been downloaded successfully on your system. Below command list all images.

docker images

REPOSITORY    TAG          IMAGE ID            CREATED         SIZE
debian        latest       3bbb526d2608        4 weeks ago     101MB

Launch New Container with Image

Finally, launch a Docker container using an above-downloaded image on your system. Below command will start a new container and provide you access to that container with /bin/bash shell.

docker run -i -t debian /bin/bash

To exit from docker container type CTRL + P + Q. This will leave container running in the background an provide you host system console. If you used the exit command, it will stop the current container.

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

docker ps

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

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

docker ps -a

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>

To stop container use following command.

docker stop <CONTAINER_ID>

To attach to currently running container use following command.

docker attach <CONTAINER_ID>