[docker] Run a Docker image as a container

After building a Docker image from a dockerfile, I see the image was built successfully, but what do I do with it? Shouldn't i be able to run it as a container?

Get the name or id of the image you would like to run, with this command:

docker images

The Docker run command is used in the following way:

docker run [OPTIONS] IMAGE [COMMAND] [ARG...]

Below I have included the dispatch, name, publish, volume and restart options before specifying the image name or id:

docker run -d --name  container-name -p localhost:80:80 -v $HOME/myContainer/configDir:/myImage/configDir --restart=always image-name

Where:

--detach , -d        Run container in background and print container ID
--name                Assign a name to the container
--publish , -p        Publish a container’s port(s) to the host
--volume , -v        Bind mount a volume
--restart            Restart policy to apply when a container exits

For more information, please check out the official Docker run reference.

Do the following steps:

1. $ docker images

   You will get a list of all local Docker images with the tags specified.

2. $ docker run image_name:tag_name

   If you didn't specify tag_name it will automatically run an image with the 'latest' tag.

   Instead of image_name, you can also specify an image ID (no tag_name).

Here is an example to run a webdev service in Docker. The image's name is morrisjobke/webdav. You can pull it from Docker Hub.

After you run these images, you can then access the WebDAV instance at http://localhost:8888/webdav. Internally the folder /var/webdav is used as the WebDAV root.

You can run this container in the following way:

$ docker run -d -e USERNAME=test -e PASSWORD=test -p 8888:80 morrisjobke/webdav

• To list the Docker images

  $ docker images
  

• If your application wants to run in with port 80, and you can expose a different port to bind locally, say 8080:

  $ docker run -d --restart=always -p 8080:80 image_name:version
  

I had the same problem. I ran my Docker image, and it created a container with a specific CONTAINER_ID. I wanted to work with the same container:

First run your Docker image:

docker run -it -p 8888:8888 -p 6006:6006 -v ~/:/host waleedka/modern-deep-learning

Then list all the containers you have made:

sudo docker ps -a

And select the container you want to work with (mine is 167ddd6d7f15):

sudo docker start -ai 167ddd6d7f15

$ docker images
REPOSITORY                TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED            
jamesmedice/marketplace   latest              e78c49b5f380        2 days ago          
jamesmedice/marketplace   v1.0.0              *e78c49b5f380*        2 days ago          


$ docker run -p 6001:8585 *e78c49b5f380*

For those who had the same problem as well, but encountered an error like

rpc error: code = 2 desc = oci runtime error: exec failed: container_linux.go:247: starting container process caused "exec: \"bash\": executable file not found in $PATH"

I added an entry point that was worked for me:

docker run -it --entrypoint /bin/sh for the images without Bash.

Example (from the approved example):

run -it --entrypoint /bin/sh ubuntu:12.04

Reference: https://gist.github.com/mitchwongho/11266726

To view a list of all images on your Docker host, run:

  $ docker images
   REPOSITORY          TAG           IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
   apache_snapshot     latest        13037686eac3        22 seconds ago      249MB
   ubuntu              latest        00fd29ccc6f1        3 weeks ago         111MB

Now you can run the Docker image as a container in interactive mode:

   $ docker run -it apache_snapshot /bin/bash

OR if you don't have any images locally,Search Docker Hub for an image to download:

    $ docker search ubuntu
    NAME                            DESCRIPTION             STARS  OFFICIAL  AUTOMATED
    ubuntu                          Ubuntu is a Debian...   6759   [OK]       
    dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc  Ubuntu with openss...   141              [OK]
    rastasheep/ubuntu-sshd          Dockerized SSH ser...   114              [OK]
    ansible/ubuntu14.04-ansible     Ubuntu 14.04 LTS w...   88               [OK]
    ubuntu-upstart                  Upstart is an even...   80     [OK]

Pull the Docker image from a repository with the docker pull command:

     $ docker pull ubuntu

Run the Docker image as a container:

     $ docker run -it ubuntu /bin/bash

You can see your available images using:

docker images

Then you can run in detached mode so your terminal is still usable. You have several options to run it using a repository name (with or without a tag) or image ID:

docker run -d repository
docker run -d repository:tag
docker run -d image_id

Then you can check your container is running using

docker ps

docker ps gives you a container ID. You can use it or just the 2/3 first characters to go into your container using:

docker exec -it container_id /bin/bash

And you can stop it using docker stop container_id and docker rm container_id.

You can also run your container with -rm arguments so if you stop your container it will automatically be removed.

Since you have created an image from the Dockerfile, the image currently is not in active state. In order to work you need to run this image inside a container.

The $ docker images command describes how many images are currently available in the local repository. and

docker ps -a

shows how many containers are currently available, i.e. the list of active and exited containers.

There are two ways to run the image in the container:

$ docker run [OPTIONS] IMAGE[:TAG|@DIGEST] [COMMAND] [ARG...]

In detached mode:

-d=false: Detached mode: Run container in the background, print new container id

In interactive mode:

-i :Keep STDIN open even if not attached

Here is the Docker run command

$ docker run image_name:tag_name

For more clarification on Docker run, you can visit Docker run reference.

It's the best material to understand Docker.