Common-Docker-Commands

Some useful commonly used docker commands when working on OSX with VirtualBox.

1) This ensures the boot2docker VM is up and running.

docker-machine start default


2) This is the command that needs to be executed once for every new terminal window opened, so as to establish connection with the boot2docker vm.

 eval “$(docker-machine env defaut)”


3) This command returns the IP address of the ‘default’ VM running boot2docker

docker-machine ip default


4) Returns a list of VM with boot2docker install and running on VirtualBox.

docker-machine ls

Sample Output:

NAME        ACTIVE   DRIVER       STATE     URL                         SWARM   ERRORS
default     *        virtualbox   Running   tcp://192.168.99.100:2376           


5) Regenerates the TLS certificates needed to communicated with the ‘boot2docker’ VM.

docker-machine regenerate-certs default     /// To regenerate the TLS certs for docker


6) Lists all available docker images

 docker images


7) Looks the docker process running with a particular container id.

docker ps -a | grep <container -id >


8) Removes a running docker container

docker rm <container id>


9) Removes a particular docker image

docker rmi  <imageid>


10) Kills a particular docker container

docker kill <container-id>


11) Connects to the docker container and gives access to the bash shell to execute commands on the container

docker exec -i -t <container id> /bin/bash


12) Runs a docker image and does not automatically terminate the container. Allows an easy way to keep the container running and later connect to the containers shell using “docker exec -it “ command.

docker run -d <image-name> tail -f /dev/null


13) This is not a docker command. This utility is part of the virtual box installation. Allows one to power-off a VM running on VirtualBox

VBoxManage controlvm <vm-name> poweroff


14) Again, not a docker command. A virtual box command to share a directory on the HOST OS (OSX: /Users/esrinivasan/..) with the guest operating system running on VirtualBox. The name of the shared folder is set as “/eks” here.

VBoxManage sharedfolder add default --name /eks --hostpath /Users/esrinivasan/develop/learning/Docker/dec-2016/docker-node/docker-volume


Elankumaran Srinivasan

Elankumaran Srinivasan
I am a software engineer, Java and open source technonogy enthusiast.

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