Docker Commands Cheat Sheet — From Beginner to Daily Driver

The Docker commands I actually use every day, organized by how often I reach for them.

Every Day

# See running containers
docker ps

# See ALL containers (including stopped)
docker ps -a

# Start/stop/restart
docker start <name>
docker stop <name>
docker restart <name>

# View logs (follow mode)
docker logs -f <name>
docker logs --tail 100 <name>

# Run a command in a running container
docker exec -it <name> bash
docker exec -it <name> sh  # if bash isn't installed

Building & Running

# Build an image
docker build -t myapp:latest .

# Run with port mapping and env vars
docker run -d \
  --name myapp \
  -p 8080:3000 \
  -e DATABASE_URL=postgres://... \
  -v /host/data:/app/data \
  myapp:latest

# Run and remove when done (great for testing)
docker run --rm -it myapp:latest

# Run with auto-restart
docker run -d --restart unless-stopped myapp:latest

Docker Compose (the real way)

# Start all services
docker compose up -d

# Rebuild and start
docker compose up -d --build

# View logs for all services
docker compose logs -f

# Restart one service
docker compose restart webapp

# Stop everything
docker compose down

# Stop and remove volumes (nuclear)
docker compose down -v

# Scale a service
docker compose up -d --scale worker=3

Cleanup (Save Your Disk)

# See disk usage
docker system df

# Remove stopped containers
docker container prune -f

# Remove unused images
docker image prune -a -f

# Remove unused volumes
docker volume prune -f

# Nuclear option
docker system prune -a --volumes -f

# Remove images older than 24h
docker image prune -a --filter 'until=24h'

Debugging

# Inspect a container
docker inspect <name>

# See resource usage
docker stats

# See container processes
docker top <name>

# Copy files to/from container
docker cp <name>:/app/logs.txt ./logs.txt
docker cp ./config.json <name>:/app/config.json

# See image layers
docker history myapp:latest

# Export container filesystem
docker export <name> > backup.tar

Networking

# List networks
docker network ls

# Create a network
docker network create mynet

# Run container on specific network
docker run -d --network mynet myapp

# Connect running container to network
docker network connect mynet <name>

# Inspect network (see IPs)
docker network inspect mynet

Pro tip: alias dc='docker compose' in your .bashrc. Your fingers will thank you.