Container Lifecycle Management: Core CLI Commands

Let us learn the commands used to manage running and stopped containers.

1. Running Containers in Background (Detached Mode)

By default, running a container attaches it to your terminal. To run a container in the background, use the -d (detached) flag:

# Run Nginx in detached mode, mapping host port 8080 to container port 80
docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name my-web-server nginx

2. Managing Container States

Use these commands to control your containers:

# List all running containers
docker ps

# List all containers (both running and stopped)
docker ps -a

# View container logs
docker logs my-web-server

# Stop a running container
docker stop my-web-server

# Start a stopped container
docker start my-web-server

# Delete a stopped container
docker rm my-web-server

3. Entering a Running Container

To run commands inside a running container, use docker exec with interactive terminal flags (-it):

# Open a bash terminal inside my-web-server container
docker exec -it my-web-server bash