Docker CLI: A Powerful Tool for DevOps and Cloud Computing to Manage Containers, Images, Volumes, and Networks with Ease
Docker CLI (Command Line Interface), which is a command line application that allows you to interact with the Docker daemon.
The Docker daemon is the process that runs in the background and manages all the containers and their resources.
The Docker CLI communicates with the Docker daemon through an API endpoint, sending commands and receiving responses.
Why use Docker CLI?
The Docker CLI provides a comprehensive set of commands that cover various aspects of container management, such as:
- Building and managing images
- Creating and running containers
- Inspecting and modifying containers
- Stopping and removing containers
- Managing networks and volumes
- Managing Swarm clusters and services
- Managing secrets and configs
- Managing images on Docker Hub or other registries
Overview
Docker CLI is a client-server application that communicates with the Docker daemon, which is a background process that runs on the host machine and manages the containers.
The Docker daemon exposes a REST API that the Docker CLI uses to send commands and receive responses.
The Docker CLI can also communicate with remote Docker daemons, either by using the DOCKER_HOST environment variable or by specifying the -H flag in the command.
For example, to run a command on a remote daemon with the IP address 192.168.1.100, you can use:
docker -H tcp://192.168.1.100:2375 <command>The Docker CLI supports various commands that can be grouped into categories:
- General commands: Provides information about Docker and its components
- Image commands: Commands that deal with images, which are the templates for creating containers
- Container commands: Commands that deal with containers, which are the instances of images that run on the host machine
- Network commands: Commands that deal with networks, which are the ways that containers can communicate with each other and with the outside world
- Volume commands: Commands that deal with volumes, which are the persistent storage for containers
- Service commands: Scale and load-balance containers across multiple hosts in a swarm mode cluster
- Stack commands: Deploy multiple services as a single unit in a swarm mode cluster
Most common used Docker CLI commands
Images
Containers
Networks
Volumes
Services
Stacks
Conclusion
Docker CLI is a powerful and flexible tool that allows you to interact with Docker containers and manage various aspects of the container ecosystem from the command line.
