"With Docker, developers can build any app in any language using any toolchain. “Dockerized” apps are completely portable and can run anywhere - colleagues’ OS X and Windows laptops, QA servers running Ubuntu in the cloud, and production data center VMs running Red Hat.
Developers can get going quickly by starting with one of the 13,000+ apps available on Docker Hub. Docker manages and tracks changes and dependencies, making it easier for sysadmins to understand how the apps that developers build work. And with Docker Hub, developers can automate their build pipeline and share artifacts with collaborators through public or private repositories.
I use [Oh My Zsh](https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh) with the [Docker plugin](https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/wiki/Plugins#docker) for autocompletion of docker commands. YMMV.
If you're not willing to run a random shell script, please see the [installation](https://docs.docker.com/installation/) instructions for your distribution.
Download and install [Docker Toolbox](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-toolbox). If that doesn't work, see the [installation instructions](https://docs.docker.com/installation/mac/).
> **NOTE** If you have an existing docker toolbox, you might think you can upgrade [Docker Machine](https://docs.docker.com/machine/install-machine/) binaries directly (either from URL or `docker-machine upgrade default`) and it will take care of itself. This is not going to help -- `docker-machine` will be `1.10.3` while `docker` is still `1.8.3` or whatever your previous version is.
[Your basic isolated Docker process](http://etherealmind.com/basics-docker-containers-hypervisors-coreos/). Containers are to Virtual Machines as threads are to processes. Or you can think of them as chroots on steroids.
If you want a transient container, `docker run --rm` will remove the container after it stops.
If you want to map a directory on the host to a docker container, `docker run -v $HOSTDIR:$DOCKERDIR`. Also see [Volumes](https://github.com/wsargent/docker-cheat-sheet/#volumes).
If you want to remove also the volumes associated with the container, the deletion of the container must include the -v switch like in `docker rm -v`.
There's also a [logging driver](https://docs.docker.com/engine/admin/logging/overview/) available for individual containers in docker 1.10. To run docker with a custom log driver (i.e. to syslog), use `docker run --log-driver=syslog`
If you want to integrate a container with a [host process manager](https://docs.docker.com/articles/host_integration/), start the daemon with `-r=false` then use `docker start -a`.
* [`docker logs`](https://docs.docker.com/reference/commandline/logs) gets logs from container. (You can use a custom log driver, but logs is only available for `json-file` and `journald` in 1.10)
* [`docker rmi`](https://docs.docker.com/reference/commandline/rmi) removes an image.
* [`docker load`](https://docs.docker.com/reference/commandline/load) loads an image from a tar archive as STDIN, including images and tags (as of 0.7).
* [`docker save`](https://docs.docker.com/reference/commandline/save) saves an image to a tar archive stream to STDOUT with all parent layers, tags & versions (as of 0.7).
While you can use the `docker rmi` command to remove specific images, there's a tool called [docker-gc](https://github.com/spotify/docker-gc) that will clean up images that are no longer used by any containers in a safe manner.
Docker has a [networks](https://docs.docker.com/engine/userguide/networking/dockernetworks/) feature. Not much is known about it, so this is a good place to expand the cheat sheet. There is a note saying that it's a good way to configure docker containers to talk to each other without using ports. See [working with networks](https://docs.docker.com/engine/userguide/networking/work-with-networks/) for more details.
A registry is a *host* -- a server that stores repositories and provides an HTTP API for [managing the uploading and downloading of repositories](https://docs.docker.com/userguide/dockerrepos/).
Docker.com hosts its own [index](https://hub.docker.com/) to a central registry which contains a large number of repositories. Having said that, the central docker registry [does not do a good job of verifying images](https://titanous.com/posts/docker-insecurity) and should be avoided if you're worried about security.
You can run a local registry by using the [docker distribution](https://github.com/docker/distribution) project and looking at the [local deploy](https://github.com/docker/distribution/blob/master/docs/deploying.md) instructions.
Also see the [mailing list](https://groups.google.com/a/dockerproject.org/forum/#!forum/distribution).
[The configuration file](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/). Sets up a Docker container when you run `docker build` on it. Vastly preferable to `docker commit`.
Here are some common text editors and their syntax highlighting modules you could use to create Dockerfiles:
* If you use [jEdit](http://jedit.org), I've put up a syntax highlighting module for [Dockerfile](https://github.com/wsargent/jedit-docker-mode) you can use.
* [Sublime Text 2](https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Dockerfile%20Syntax%20Highlighting)
* [FROM](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#from) Sets the Base Image for subsequent instructions.
* [MAINTAINER](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#maintainer) Set the Author field of the generated images..
* [RUN](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#run) execute any commands in a new layer on top of the current image and commit the results.
* [CMD](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#cmd) provide defaults for an executing container.
* [EXPOSE](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#expose) informs Docker that the container listens on the specified network ports at runtime. NOTE: does not actually make ports accessible.
* [ADD](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#add) copies new files, directories or remote file to container. Invalidates caches. Avoid `ADD` and use `COPY` instead.
* [COPY](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#copy) copies new files or directories to container.
* [Best practices for writing Dockerfiles](https://docs.docker.com/articles/dockerfile_best-practices/)
* [Michael Crosby](http://crosbymichael.com/) has some more [Dockerfiles best practices](http://crosbymichael.com/dockerfile-best-practices.html) / [take 2](http://crosbymichael.com/dockerfile-best-practices-take-2.html).
The versioned filesystem in Docker is based on layers. They're like [git commits or changesets for filesystems](https://docs.docker.com/engine/userguide/storagedriver/imagesandcontainers/).
Note that if you're using [aufs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufs) as your filesystem, Docker does not always remove data volumes containers layers when you delete a container! See [PR 8484](https://github.com/docker/docker/pull/8484) for more details.
Links are how Docker containers talk to each other [through TCP/IP ports](https://docs.docker.com/userguide/dockerlinks/). [Linking into Redis](https://docs.docker.com/examples/running_redis_service/) and [Atlassian](https://blogs.atlassian.com/2013/11/docker-all-the-things-at-atlassian-automation-and-wiring/) show worked examples. You can also (in 0.11) resolve [links by hostname](https://docs.docker.com/userguide/dockerlinks/#updating-the-etchosts-file).
NOTE: If you want containers to ONLY communicate with each other through links, start the docker daemon with `-icc=false` to disable inter process communication.
If you want to link across docker hosts then you should look at [Swarm](https://docs.docker.com/swarm/). This [link on stackoverflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21283517/how-to-link-docker-services-across-hosts) provides some good information on different patterns for linking containers across docker hosts.
Docker volumes are [free-floating filesystems](https://docs.docker.com/userguide/dockervolumes/). They don't have to be connected to a particular container. You should use volumes mounted from [data-only containers](https://medium.com/@ramangupta/why-docker-data-containers-are-good-589b3c6c749e) for portability.
Volumes are useful in situations where you can't use links (which are TCP/IP only). For instance, if you need to have two docker instances communicate by leaving stuff on the filesystem.
Because volumes are isolated filesystems, they are often used to store state from computations between transient containers. That is, you can have a stateless and transient container run from a recipe, blow it away, and then have a second instance of the transient container pick up from where the last one left off.
See [advanced volumes](http://crosbymichael.com/advanced-docker-volumes.html) for more details. Container42 is [also helpful](http://container42.com/2014/11/03/docker-indepth-volumes/).
As of 1.3, you can [map MacOS host directories as docker volumes](https://docs.docker.com/userguide/dockervolumes/#mount-a-host-directory-as-a-data-volume) through boot2docker:
You can also use remote NFS volumes if you're [feeling brave](https://web.archive.org/web/20150306065158/http://www.tech-d.net/2014/03/29/docker-quicktip-4-remote-volumes/).
You may also consider running data-only containers as described [here](http://container42.com/2013/12/16/persistent-volumes-with-docker-container-as-volume-pattern/) to provide some data portability.
You can tell Docker that the container listens on the specified network ports at runtime by using [EXPOSE](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#expose):
If you're running Docker in Virtualbox, you then need to forward the port there as well, using [forwarded_port](https://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/networking/forwarded_ports.html). It can be useful to define something in Vagrantfile to expose a range of ports so that you can dynamically map them:
This is where general Docker best practices and war stories go:
* [The Rabbit Hole of Using Docker in Automated Tests](http://gregoryszorc.com/blog/2014/10/16/the-rabbit-hole-of-using-docker-in-automated-tests/)
* [Bridget Kromhout](https://twitter.com/bridgetkromhout) has a useful blog post on [running Docker in production](http://sysadvent.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/day-1-docker-in-production-reality-not.html) at Dramafever.
* There's also a best practices [blog post](http://developers.lyst.com/devops/2014/12/08/docker/) from Lyst.
First things first: Docker runs as root. If you are in the `docker` group, you effectively [have root access](http://reventlov.com/advisories/using-the-docker-command-to-root-the-host). If you expose the docker unix socket to a container, you are giving the container [root access to the host](https://www.lvh.io/posts/dont-expose-the-docker-socket-not-even-to-a-container.html). Docker should not be your only defense.
For greatest security, you want to run Docker inside a virtual machine. This is straight from the Docker Security Team Lead -- [slides](http://www.slideshare.net/jpetazzo/linux-containers-lxc-docker-and-security) / [notes](http://www.projectatomic.io/blog/2014/08/is-it-safe-a-look-at-docker-and-security-from-linuxcon/). Then, run with AppArmor / seccomp / SELinux / grsec etc to [limit the container permissions](http://linux-audit.com/docker-security-best-practices-for-your-vessel-and-containers/). See the [Docker 1.10 security features](https://blog.docker.com/2016/02/docker-engine-1-10-security/) for more details.
Docker image ids are [sensitive information](https://medium.com/@quayio/your-docker-image-ids-are-secrets-and-its-time-you-treated-them-that-way-f55e9f14c1a4) and should not be exposed to the outside world. Treat them like passwords.
See the [Docker Security Cheat Sheet](https://github.com/konstruktoid/Docker/blob/master/Security/CheatSheet.adoc) by [Thomas Sjögren](https://github.com/konstruktoid): some good stuff about container hardening in there.
Check out the [docker bench security script](https://github.com/docker/docker-bench-security), download the [white papers](https://blog.docker.com/2015/05/understanding-docker-security-and-best-practices/) and subscribe to the [mailing lists](https://www.docker.com/docker-security) (unfortunately Docker does not have a unique mailing list, only dev / user).
You should start off by using a kernel with unstable patches for grsecurity / pax compiled in, such as [Alpine Linux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_Linux). If you are using grsecurity in production, you should spring for [commercial support](https://grsecurity.net/business_support.php) for the [stable patches](https://grsecurity.net/announce.php), same as you would do for RedHat. It's $200 a month, which is nothing to your devops budget.
Since docker 1.11 you can easily limit the number of active processes running inside a container to prevent fork bombs. This requires a linux kernel >= 4.3 with CGROUP_PIDS=y to be in the kernel configuration.
```
docker run --pids-limit=64
```
Also available since docker 1.11 is the ability to prevent processes to gain new privileges. This feature is in the linux kernel since version 3.5. You can read more about it in [this](http://www.projectatomic.io/blog/2016/03/no-new-privs-docker/) blog post.
From the [Docker Security Cheat Sheet](http://container-solutions.com/content/uploads/2015/06/15.06.15_DockerCheatSheet_A2.pdf) (it's in PDF which makes it hard to use, so copying below) by [Container Solutions](http://container-solutions.com/is-docker-safe-for-production/):
There's also work on [user namespaces](https://s3hh.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/creating-and-using-containers-without-privilege/) -- it is in 1.10 but is not enabled by default.
To enable user namespaces ("remap the userns") in Ubuntu 15.10, [follow the blog example](https://raesene.github.io/blog/2016/02/04/Docker-User-Namespaces/).
There is an AppArmor policy generator called [bane](https://github.com/jfrazelle/bane), and they're working on [security profiles](https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/17142).