How to list containers in Docker

Answer 1

To display only running containers

docker ps

To show all containers (includes all states)

docker ps -a

To show the latest created container (includes all states)

docker ps -l

To show n last created containers (includes all states)

docker ps -n=-1

To display total file sizes

docker ps -s

In the new version of Docker, commands are updated, and some management commands are added:

docker container ls

List all the running containers.

docker container ls -a

Answer 2

I got the error message Cannot connect to the Docker daemon. I forgot I am running the daemon as root and needed sudo:

$ sudo docker ps

Answer 3

just a convenient way of getting last n=5 containers (no matter running or not):

$ docker container ls -a -n5

Answer 4

There are many ways to list all containers.

You can find using 3 Aliasesls, ps, list like this.

sudo docker container ls 
sudo docker container ps
sudo docker container list
sudo docker ps
sudo docker ps -a

You can also use give option[option].

Options -:

  -a, --all             Show all containers (default shows just running)
  -f, --filter filter   Filter output based on conditions provided
      --format string   Pretty-print containers using a Go template
  -n, --last int        Show last created containers (includes all states) (default -1)
  -l, --latest          Show the latest created container (includes all states)
      --no-trunc        Don't truncate output
  -q, --quiet           Only display numeric IDs
  -s, --size            Display total file sizes

You can use an option like this:

sudo docker ps //Showing only running containers
sudo docker ps -a //All container (running + stopped)
sudo docker pa -l // latest
sudo docker ps -n <int valuse 1,2,3 etc>// latest number of created containers
sudo docker ps -s // Display container with size
sudo docker ps -q // Only display numeric IDs for containers
docker docker ps -a | tail -n 1 //oldest container

Answer 5

There are also the following options:

docker container ls
docker container ls -a
# --all, -a
# Show all containers (default shows just running)

since: 1.13.0 (2017-01-18):

Restructure CLI commands by adding docker image and docker container commands for more consistency #26025

and as stated here: Introducing Docker 1.13, users are encouraged to adopt the new syntax:

CLI restructured

In Docker 1.13, we regrouped every command to sit under the logical object it’s interacting with. For example list and start of containers are now subcommands of docker container and history is a subcommand of docker image.

These changes let us clean up the Docker CLI syntax, improve help text and make Docker simpler to use. The old command syntax is still supported, but we encourage everybody to adopt the new syntax.

Answer 6

Use docker container ls to list all running containers.

Use the flag -a to show all containers (not just running). i.e. docker container ls -a

Use the flag -q to show containers and their numeric IDs. i.e. docker container ls -q

Visit the documentation to learn all available options for this command.