Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu and Basic Commands

Amrit SubediAmrit Subedi
3 min read

Docker Engine

Docker Engine is an open source containerization technology for building and containerizing your applications. Docker Engine acts as a client-server application with:

  • A server with a long-running daemon process dockerd.

  • APIs which specify interfaces that programs can use to talk to and instruct the Docker daemon.

  • A command line interface (CLI) client docker.

The CLI uses Docker APIs to control or interact with the Docker daemon through scripting or direct CLI commands. Many other Docker applications use the underlying API and CLI. The daemon creates and manage Docker objects, such as images, containers, networks, and volumes.

Install using the apt repository

Before you install Docker Engine for the first time on a new host machine, you need to set up the Docker repository. Afterward, you can install and update Docker from the repository.

Set up the repository

  1. Update the apt package index and install packages to allow apt to use a repository over HTTPS:

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg

  1. Add Docker’s official GPG key:

$sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings

$ curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

$ sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

  1. Use the following command to set up the repository:

echo "deb [arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)" signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu"$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")" stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

Note

If you use an Ubuntu derivative distro, such as Linux Mint, you may need to use UBUNTU_CODENAME instead of VERSION_CODENAME.

Install Docker Engine

  1. Update the apt package index:

sudo apt-get update

  1. Install Docker Engine, containerd, and Docker Compose.

To install the latest version, run:

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

  1. Verify that the Docker Engine installation is successful by running the hello-world image.

sudo docker run hello-world

This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints a confirmation message and exits.

You have now successfully installed and started Docker Engine.

Docker Basic Commands

  1. docker run: Create and start a new container from an image.

  2. docker pull: Download an image from a registry.

  3. docker build: Build an image from a Dockerfile.

  4. docker images: List all available images on your system.

  5. docker ps: List running containers.

  6. docker stop: Stop a running container.

  7. docker start: Start a stopped container.

  8. docker restart: Restart a running container.

  9. docker rm: Remove a container.

  10. docker rmi: Remove an image.

  11. docker logs: View the logs of a container.

  12. docker exec: Run a command inside a running container.

  13. docker cp: Copy files between a container and the host.

  14. docker inspect: Display detailed information about a container or image.

  15. docker network: Manage Docker networks.

  16. docker volume: Manage Docker volumes.

  17. docker-compose up: Create and start containers defined in a Compose file.

  18. docker-compose down: Stop and remove containers defined in a Compose file.

  19. docker-compose build: Build or rebuild services defined in a Compose file.

  20. docker-compose logs: View the logs of containers defined in a Compose file.

    Happy Learning!!

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Written by

Amrit Subedi
Amrit Subedi