docker error - 'name is already in use by container'

Question

Running the docker registry with below command always throws an error:

dev:tmp me$ docker run \\
     -d --name registry-v1 \\
     -e SETTINGS_         


        

Answer 1

Just to explain what others are saying (it took me some time to understand) is that, simply put, when you see this error, it means you already have a container and what you have to do is run it. While intuitively docker run is supposed to run it, it doesn't. The command docker run is used to only START a container for the very first time. To run an existing container what you need is docker start $container-name. So much for asking developers to create meaningful/intuitive commands.

Answer 2

Here is how I solved this on ubuntu 18:

1. $ sudo docker ps -a
2. copy the container ID

For each container do:

3. $ sudo docker stop container_ID
4. $ sudo docker rm container_ID

Answer 3

When you are building a new image you often want to run a new container each time and with the same name. I found the easiest way was to start the container with the --rm option:

--rm        Automatically remove the container when it exits

e.g.

docker run --name my-micro-service --rm <image>

Sadly it's used almost randomly in the examples from the docs

Answer 4

You can remove it with command sudo docker rm YOUR_CONTAINER_ID, then run a new container with sudo docker run ...; or restart an existing container with sudo docker start YOUR_CONTAINER_ID

Answer 5

That means you have already started a container in the past with the parameter docker run --name registry-v1 ....

You need to delete that first before you can re-create a container with the same name with docker rm registry-v1. When that container is sill running you need to stop it first before you can delete it with docker stop registry-v1. Or simply choose a different name for the new container.

To get a list of existing containers and their names simply invoke docker ps -a.

Answer 6

You have 2 options to fix this...

1. Remove previous container using that name, with the command docker rm $(docker ps -aq --filter name=myContainerName)

   OR

2. Rename current container to a different name i.e change this portion --name registry-v1 to something like --name myAnotherContainerName

You are getting this error because that container name ( i.e registry-v1) was used by another container in the past...even though that container may have exited i.e (currently not in use).