Master Docker Commands: Essential Cheat Sheet for Cloud‑Native Developers

Docker is a core technology for cloud‑native development and a must‑have skill in large enterprises. This article provides a complete reference of Docker commands.

Image Management

docker images

– List all local images. docker pull <image>[:tag] – Pull an image from a remote registry. docker rmi <image> – Remove a local image. docker build -t <name>:<tag> . – Build an image from a Dockerfile.

Container Management

docker ps

– Show running containers. docker ps -a – Show all containers, including stopped ones.

docker run -d -p <hostPort>:<containerPort> <image>

– Run a new container in the background with port mapping. docker exec -it <container> bash – Execute a command inside a running container. docker logs -f <container> – Follow container logs. docker stop <container> – Stop a container. docker start <container> – Start a stopped container. docker restart <container> – Restart a container. docker rm <container> – Remove a container.

Volumes and Networks

docker volume create <name>

– Create a data volume. docker volume ls – List all volumes. docker network ls – List networks.

Image Packaging and Import/Export

docker save -o <file.tar> <image>

– Save an image to a tar archive. docker load -i <file.tar> – Load an image from a tar archive. docker export <container> > <file.tar> – Export a container’s filesystem. docker import <file.tar> <image>:v1 – Import a tar archive as an image.