Docker Cheat Sheet: 30 Essential Commands You Need Daily

Docker commands can be overwhelming — there are hundreds of options and flags. But in daily work, you only need about 30 commands. Here's your definitive cheat sheet, organized by category.

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Container Lifecycle

# Run a container
docker run -d --name myapp -p 8080:80 nginx

# Run with auto-remove (great for testing)
docker run --rm -it ubuntu bash

# Run with environment variables
docker run -d --name db -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secret -p 5432:5432 postgres:16

# Stop / Start / Restart
docker stop myapp
docker start myapp
docker restart myapp

# Remove container
docker rm myapp
docker rm -f myapp          # Force remove running container

# Remove ALL stopped containers
docker container prune

Container Inspection

# List running containers
docker ps

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

# Container logs
docker logs myapp
docker logs -f myapp        # Follow (like tail -f)
docker logs --tail 100 myapp  # Last 100 lines

# Container resource usage
docker stats
docker stats myapp

# Inspect container details
docker inspect myapp

# Execute command inside running container
docker exec -it myapp bash
docker exec myapp ls /var/www

Images

# List images
docker images

# Pull image
docker pull nginx:latest
docker pull postgres:16-alpine

# Build image from Dockerfile
docker build -t myapp:latest .
docker build -t myapp:v2 -f Dockerfile.prod .

# Tag image
docker tag myapp:latest myregistry.com/myapp:v2

# Push to registry
docker push myregistry.com/myapp:v2

# Remove image
docker rmi nginx:latest

# Remove ALL unused images
docker image prune -a

Volumes & Data

# Create named volume
docker volume create mydata

# Run with volume
docker run -d -v mydata:/var/lib/postgresql/data postgres:16

# Bind mount (host directory)
docker run -d -v /host/path:/container/path nginx

# List volumes
docker volume ls

# Inspect volume
docker volume inspect mydata

# Backup a volume
docker run --rm -v mydata:/data -v $(pwd):/backup alpine tar czf /backup/data.tar.gz /data

Networks

# Create network
docker network create mynet

# Run container on network
docker run -d --network mynet --name app1 myapp
docker run -d --network mynet --name db postgres:16

# Containers on same network can reach each other by name:
# app1 can connect to "db:5432"

# List networks
docker network ls

# Inspect network
docker network inspect mynet

Docker Compose

# Start all services
docker compose up -d

# Stop all services
docker compose down

# Stop and remove volumes too
docker compose down -v

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

# View logs
docker compose logs -f

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

# Execute command in service
docker compose exec app bash

Cleanup

# Remove everything unused (containers, images, networks, volumes)
docker system prune -a --volumes

# Check disk usage
docker system df

# Remove specific unused resources
docker container prune   # Stopped containers
docker image prune -a    # Unused images
docker volume prune      # Unused volumes
docker network prune     # Unused networks

Quick Reference Table

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between docker run and docker compose up?

docker run starts a single container. docker compose up starts multiple containers defined in a docker-compose.yml file with networking, volumes, and dependencies configured. For anything beyond a single container, use Compose.

How do I update a running container?

Pull the new image (docker pull image:tag), stop the old container (docker stop X), remove it (docker rm X), and run a new one with the same settings. With Compose: docker compose pull && docker compose up -d.

How do I reduce Docker disk usage?

Run docker system df to see usage, then docker system prune -a --volumes to clean everything unused. For ongoing maintenance, add docker system prune -f to a weekly cron job.