Running a Docker Container: An Intro for Beginners

is a powerful tool that allows users to easily deploy and run applications in containers. Containers are lightweight, standalone, and executable packages that contain everything an application needs to run, including code, libraries, dependencies, and runtime. They are isolated from the host system and from other containers, making them a convenient and secure way to package and distribute applications. Docker The code shared in this article is AI-generated. In this article, we will discuss how to run a Docker container. To run a Docker container, you will need to have Docker installed on your system. If you do not have Docker installed, you can download it from the official Docker website or use a to install it. package manager Once Docker is installed, you can then run a Docker container using the command. The command takes the following syntax: docker run docker run docker run [OPTIONS] IMAGE[:TAG] [COMMAND] [ARG...] The argument specifies the image to use for the container. The is optional and specifies a version of the image to use. If no is specified, the latest version of the image will be used. IMAGE[:TAG] TAG TAG The argument specifies the command to run when the container is started such as executing a startup script. This is optional and can be omitted if the image includes a default command. COMMAND The arguments are optional and can be used to pass additional arguments to the command. ARG Before starting a container, you may want to first search for the image you want to use. You can do this using the command, which searches the Docker Hub registry for images. docker search For example, to search for an Ubuntu image, you can use the following command: docker search ubuntu This will return a list of available Ubuntu images, along with their names, descriptions, and tags. You can then use the name and tag of the image you want to use with the command. docker run Once you have found the image you want to use, you can run a docker container using the command. Here is an example of starting a docker container using the command: docker run docker run docker run -it ubuntu:20.04 bash This command will start a new container based on the image and run the command inside the container. If the image is not found locally, it will be pulled from the registry. The option specifies that the container should run in interactive mode and allocate a pseudo-TTY. This is especially useful for debugging running containers and viewing logs. ubuntu:20.04 bash -it You can use other options with the command to customize the behavior of the container. Some common options include: docker run : Run the container in detached mode. This means that the container will run in the background and the command prompt will return to the host system. -d : Map a port on the host system to a port inside the container. This allows you to access the application inside the container from the host system. -p : Mount a volume inside the container. This allows you to persist data across container restarts and share data between the host system and the container. -v For example, to run a container in detached mode and map port 8080 on the host system to port 80 inside the container, you can use the following command: docker run -d -p 8080:80 nginx This docker command starts a new container based on the image and runs it in detached mode. The option specifies that the container should run in the background, while the option maps port 8080 on the host system to port 80 inside the container. This allows you to access the web server running inside the container from the host system on port 8080. nginx -d -p If you wanted to specify a bind mount inside the container, you can use the following command: docker run -d -p 8080:80 -v /app:/foo nginx When the host directory of a bind-mounted volume doesn’t exist, Docker will automatically create this directory on the host for you. In the example above, Docker will create the folder before starting your container. /app/ There are many options to consider when you are running Docker containers and in this article, I listed the most common options that you are likely to use often. If you want to learn more options for running Docker containers, you can find the full list . here Also published here.