docker ps

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes

Description

List containers

Usage

docker ps [OPTIONS]

Options

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

Parent command

Command	Description
docker	The base command for the Docker CLI.

Examples

Prevent truncating output

Running docker ps --no-trunc showing 2 linked containers.

$ docker ps

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                        COMMAND                CREATED              STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
4c01db0b339c        ubuntu:12.04                 bash                   17 seconds ago       Up 16 seconds       3300-3310/tcp       webapp
d7886598dbe2        crosbymichael/redis:latest   /redis-server --dir    33 minutes ago       Up 33 minutes       6379/tcp            redis,webapp/db

Show both running and stopped containers

The docker ps command only shows running containers by default. To see all containers, use the -a (or --all) flag:

$ docker ps -a

docker ps groups exposed ports into a single range if possible. E.g., a container that exposes TCP ports 100, 101, 102 displays 100-102/tcp in the PORTS column.

Filtering

The filtering flag (-f or --filter) format is a key=value pair. If there is more than one filter, then pass multiple flags (e.g. --filter "foo=bar" --filter "bif=baz")

The currently supported filters are:

Filter	Description
`id`	Container’s ID
`name`	Container’s name
`label`	An arbitrary string representing either a key or a key-value pair. Expressed as `<key>` or `<key>=<value>`
`exited`	An integer representing the container’s exit code. Only useful with `--all`.
`status`	One of `created`, `restarting`, `running`, `removing`, `paused`, `exited`, or `dead`
`ancestor`	Filters containers which share a given image as an ancestor. Expressed as `<image-name>[:<tag>]`, `<image id>`, or `<image@digest>`
`before` or `since`	Filters containers created before or after a given container ID or name
`volume`	Filters running containers which have mounted a given volume or bind mount.
`network`	Filters running containers connected to a given network.
`publish` or `expose`	Filters containers which publish or expose a given port. Expressed as `<port>[/<proto>]` or `<startport-endport>/[<proto>]`
`health`	Filters containers based on their healthcheck status. One of `starting`, `healthy`, `unhealthy` or `none`.
`isolation`	Windows daemon only. One of `default`, `process`, or `hyperv`.
`is-task`	Filters containers that are a “task” for a service. Boolean option (`true` or `false`)

label

The label filter matches containers based on the presence of a label alone or a label and a value.

The following filter matches containers with the color label regardless of its value.

$ docker ps --filter "label=color"

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
673394ef1d4c        busybox             "top"               47 seconds ago      Up 45 seconds                           nostalgic_shockley
d85756f57265        busybox             "top"               52 seconds ago      Up 51 seconds                           high_albattani

The following filter matches containers with the color label with the blue value.

$ docker ps --filter "label=color=blue"

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED              STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
d85756f57265        busybox             "top"               About a minute ago   Up About a minute                       high_albattani

name

The name filter matches on all or part of a container’s name.

The following filter matches all containers with a name containing the nostalgic_stallman string.

$ docker ps --filter "name=nostalgic_stallman"

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
9b6247364a03        busybox             "top"               2 minutes ago       Up 2 minutes                            nostalgic_stallman

You can also filter for a substring in a name as this shows:

$ docker ps --filter "name=nostalgic"

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
715ebfcee040        busybox             "top"               3 seconds ago       Up 1 second                             i_am_nostalgic
9b6247364a03        busybox             "top"               7 minutes ago       Up 7 minutes                            nostalgic_stallman
673394ef1d4c        busybox             "top"               38 minutes ago      Up 38 minutes                           nostalgic_shockley

exited

The exited filter matches containers by exist status code. For example, to filter for containers that have exited successfully:

$ docker ps -a --filter 'exited=0'

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE             COMMAND                CREATED             STATUS                   PORTS                      NAMES
ea09c3c82f6e        registry:latest   /srv/run.sh            2 weeks ago         Exited (0) 2 weeks ago   127.0.0.1:5000->5000/tcp   desperate_leakey
106ea823fe4e        fedora:latest     /bin/sh -c 'bash -l'   2 weeks ago         Exited (0) 2 weeks ago                              determined_albattani
48ee228c9464        fedora:20         bash                   2 weeks ago         Exited (0) 2 weeks ago                              tender_torvalds

Filter by exit signal

You can use a filter to locate containers that exited with status of 137 meaning a SIGKILL(9) killed them.

$ docker ps -a --filter 'exited=137'

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                CREATED             STATUS                       PORTS               NAMES
b3e1c0ed5bfe        ubuntu:latest       "sleep 1000"           12 seconds ago      Exited (137) 5 seconds ago                       grave_kowalevski
a2eb5558d669        redis:latest        "/entrypoint.sh redi   2 hours ago         Exited (137) 2 hours ago                         sharp_lalande

Any of these events result in a 137 status:

the init process of the container is killed manually
docker kill kills the container
Docker daemon restarts which kills all running containers

status

The status filter matches containers by status. You can filter using created, restarting, running, removing, paused, exited and dead. For example, to filter for running containers:

$ docker ps --filter status=running

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                  COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
715ebfcee040        busybox                "top"               16 minutes ago      Up 16 minutes                           i_am_nostalgic
d5c976d3c462        busybox                "top"               23 minutes ago      Up 23 minutes                           top
9b6247364a03        busybox                "top"               24 minutes ago      Up 24 minutes                           nostalgic_stallman

To filter for paused containers:

$ docker ps --filter status=paused

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS                      PORTS               NAMES
673394ef1d4c        busybox             "top"               About an hour ago   Up About an hour (Paused)                       nostalgic_shockley

ancestor

The ancestor filter matches containers based on its image or a descendant of it. The filter supports the following image representation:

image
image:tag
image:tag@digest
short-id
full-id

If you don’t specify a tag, the latest tag is used. For example, to filter for containers that use the latest ubuntu image:

$ docker ps --filter ancestor=ubuntu

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED              STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
919e1179bdb8        ubuntu-c1           "top"               About a minute ago   Up About a minute                       admiring_lovelace
5d1e4a540723        ubuntu-c2           "top"               About a minute ago   Up About a minute                       admiring_sammet
82a598284012        ubuntu              "top"               3 minutes ago        Up 3 minutes                            sleepy_bose
bab2a34ba363        ubuntu              "top"               3 minutes ago        Up 3 minutes                            focused_yonath

Match containers based on the ubuntu-c1 image which, in this case, is a child of ubuntu:

$ docker ps --filter ancestor=ubuntu-c1

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED              STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
919e1179bdb8        ubuntu-c1           "top"               About a minute ago   Up About a minute                       admiring_lovelace

Match containers based on the ubuntu version 12.04.5 image:

$ docker ps --filter ancestor=ubuntu:12.04.5

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED              STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
82a598284012        ubuntu:12.04.5      "top"               3 minutes ago        Up 3 minutes                            sleepy_bose

The following matches containers based on the layer d0e008c6cf02 or an image that have this layer in its layer stack.

$ docker ps --filter ancestor=d0e008c6cf02

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED              STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
82a598284012        ubuntu:12.04.5      "top"               3 minutes ago        Up 3 minutes                            sleepy_bose

Create time

before

The before filter shows only containers created before the container with given id or name. For example, having these containers created:

$ docker ps

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE       COMMAND       CREATED              STATUS              PORTS              NAMES
9c3527ed70ce        busybox     "top"         14 seconds ago       Up 15 seconds                          desperate_dubinsky
4aace5031105        busybox     "top"         48 seconds ago       Up 49 seconds                          focused_hamilton
6e63f6ff38b0        busybox     "top"         About a minute ago   Up About a minute                      distracted_fermat

Filtering with before would give:

$ docker ps -f before=9c3527ed70ce

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE       COMMAND       CREATED              STATUS              PORTS              NAMES
4aace5031105        busybox     "top"         About a minute ago   Up About a minute                      focused_hamilton
6e63f6ff38b0        busybox     "top"         About a minute ago   Up About a minute                      distracted_fermat

since

The since filter shows only containers created since the container with given id or name. For example, with the same containers as in before filter:

$ docker ps -f since=6e63f6ff38b0

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE       COMMAND       CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
9c3527ed70ce        busybox     "top"         10 minutes ago      Up 10 minutes                           desperate_dubinsky
4aace5031105        busybox     "top"         10 minutes ago      Up 10 minutes                           focused_hamilton

volume

The volume filter shows only containers that mount a specific volume or have a volume mounted in a specific path:

$ docker ps --filter volume=remote-volume --format "table {{.ID}}\t{{.Mounts}}"
CONTAINER ID        MOUNTS
9c3527ed70ce        remote-volume

$ docker ps --filter volume=/data --format "table {{.ID}}\t{{.Mounts}}"
CONTAINER ID        MOUNTS
9c3527ed70ce        remote-volume

network

The network filter shows only containers that are connected to a network with a given name or id.

The following filter matches all containers that are connected to a network with a name containing net1.

$ docker run -d --net=net1 --name=test1 ubuntu top
$ docker run -d --net=net2 --name=test2 ubuntu top

$ docker ps --filter network=net1

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE       COMMAND       CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
9d4893ed80fe        ubuntu      "top"         10 minutes ago      Up 10 minutes                           test1

The network filter matches on both the network’s name and id. The following example shows all containers that are attached to the net1 network, using the network id as a filter;

$ docker network inspect --format "{{.ID}}" net1

8c0b4110ae930dbe26b258de9bc34a03f98056ed6f27f991d32919bfe401d7c5

$ docker ps --filter network=8c0b4110ae930dbe26b258de9bc34a03f98056ed6f27f991d32919bfe401d7c5

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE       COMMAND       CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
9d4893ed80fe        ubuntu      "top"         10 minutes ago      Up 10 minutes                           test1

publish and expose

The publish and expose filters show only containers that have published or exposed port with a given port number, port range, and/or protocol. The default protocol is tcp when not specified.

The following filter matches all containers that have published port of 80:

$ docker run -d --publish=80 busybox top
$ docker run -d --expose=8080 busybox top

$ docker ps -a

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                   NAMES
9833437217a5        busybox             "top"               5 seconds ago       Up 4 seconds        8080/tcp                dreamy_mccarthy
fc7e477723b7        busybox             "top"               50 seconds ago      Up 50 seconds       0.0.0.0:32768->80/tcp   admiring_roentgen

$ docker ps --filter publish=80

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED              STATUS              PORTS                   NAMES
fc7e477723b7        busybox             "top"               About a minute ago   Up About a minute   0.0.0.0:32768->80/tcp   admiring_roentgen

The following filter matches all containers that have exposed TCP port in the range of 8000-8080:

$ docker ps --filter expose=8000-8080/tcp

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
9833437217a5        busybox             "top"               21 seconds ago      Up 19 seconds       8080/tcp            dreamy_mccarthy

The following filter matches all containers that have exposed UDP port 80:

$ docker ps --filter publish=80/udp

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES

Formatting

The formatting option (--format) pretty-prints container output using a Go template.

Valid placeholders for the Go template are listed below:

Placeholder	Description
`.ID`	Container ID
`.Image`	Image ID
`.Command`	Quoted command
`.CreatedAt`	Time when the container was created.
`.RunningFor`	Elapsed time since the container was started.
`.Ports`	Exposed ports.
`.Status`	Container status.
`.Size`	Container disk size.
`.Names`	Container names.
`.Labels`	All labels assigned to the container.
`.Label`	Value of a specific label for this container. For example `'{{.Label "com.docker.swarm.cpu"}}'`
`.Mounts`	Names of the volumes mounted in this container.
`.Networks`	Names of the networks attached to this container.

When using the --format option, the ps command will either output the data exactly as the template declares or, when using the table directive, includes column headers as well.

The following example uses a template without headers and outputs the ID and Command entries separated by a colon for all running containers:

$ docker ps --format "{{.ID}}: {{.Command}}"

a87ecb4f327c: /bin/sh -c #(nop) MA
01946d9d34d8: /bin/sh -c #(nop) MA
c1d3b0166030: /bin/sh -c yum -y up
41d50ecd2f57: /bin/sh -c #(nop) MA

To list all running containers with their labels in a table format you can use:

$ docker ps --format "table {{.ID}}\t{{.Labels}}"

CONTAINER ID        LABELS
a87ecb4f327c        com.docker.swarm.node=ubuntu,com.docker.swarm.storage=ssd
01946d9d34d8
c1d3b0166030        com.docker.swarm.node=debian,com.docker.swarm.cpu=6
41d50ecd2f57        com.docker.swarm.node=fedora,com.docker.swarm.cpu=3,com.docker.swarm.storage=ssd

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