How to List Containers in Docker

1. List All Running Containers in Docker
2. List Running and Exited Containers in Docker
3. List a Specific Number of Containers in Docker
4. List Only the Exited Containers in Docker
5. List Recently Created Containers in Docker
6. List Containers in Terms of ID in Docker
7. List Containers Alongside their Size in Docker

This article will explore various commands for listing containers created in our system. This means that we should have made some containers beforehand for these commands to return values.

List All Running Containers in Docker

We will start by listing running containers. To do this, we can use the docker ps command.

$ docker ps

This command lists all the containers currently running, which can be seen under the STATUS column in the sample output below. As shown here, we can also determine the approximate amount of time that the container(s) have been up and running.

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND                  CREATED              STATUS              PORTS     NAMES
1c955bac1a84   ubuntu    "bash"                   About a minute ago   Up About a minute             musing_morse
1296f9b9d330   nginx     "/docker-entrypoint.…"   2 minutes ago        Up 2 minutes        80/tcp    distracted_napier

We can also use the docker container ls command to return the same output.

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS     NAMES
1c955bac1a84   ubuntu    "bash"                   14 minutes ago   Up 14 minutes             musing_morse
1296f9b9d330   nginx     "/docker-entrypoint.…"   15 minutes ago   Up 14 minutes   80/tcp    distracted_napier

Besides the STATUS, the following details are also returned.

• The CONTAINER ID, which is a unique identifier for the container;
• The CONTAINER IMAGE, i.e., the image that we have used to build that container;
• The COMMAND responsible for running the container;
• The PORT mappings between the host machine and the container.

List Running and Exited Containers in Docker

Besides listing running containers, we can also list both running and exited containers. We need to append the -a tag to the command we used earlier.

By default, these commands only show running containers; however, using this tag can get the commands also to list exited containers.

Command:

$ docker ps -a

Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS                          PORTS     NAMES
38086474cb6c   debian    "bash"                   4 minutes ago    Exited (0) 2 minutes ago                  epic_jackson
1c955bac1a84   ubuntu    "bash"                   52 minutes ago   Exited (0) About a minute ago             musing_morse
1296f9b9d330   nginx     "/docker-entrypoint.…"   53 minutes ago   Up 58 seconds                   80/tcp    distracted_napier

In the output above under the Status column, you can note that the first two containers are not running while the last container is running.

List a Specific Number of Containers in Docker

We can also display a specific number of containers in our system. Suppose we want to show the first two containers only. We can do this by using the -n tag alongside the commands that we used above.

This will bring up both running and exited but not more than the specified number.

Command:

$ docker container ls -n 2

Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND   CREATED             STATUS                      PORTS     NAMES
38086474cb6c   debian    "bash"    31 minutes ago      Exited (0) 29 minutes ago             epic_jackson
1c955bac1a84   ubuntu    "bash"    About an hour ago   Exited (0) 27 minutes ago             musing_morse

Using the docker ps command, in the same way, will also list the exact number of containers that we have specified below. Here is how we can implement that.

Command:

$ docker ps -a -n 2

Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND   CREATED             STATUS                      PORTS     NAMES
38086474cb6c   debian    "bash"    33 minutes ago      Exited (0) 31 minutes ago             epic_jackson
1c955bac1a84   ubuntu    "bash"    About an hour ago   Exited (0) 29 minutes ago             musing_morse

List Only the Exited Containers in Docker

Using filters, we can also list only containers that are currently not running. Using the -f tag to specify the condition that we want to be satisfied, in this case, we only wish to return containers with exited status.

We can also add multiple filters if we wish to return containers based on something else. Here is how we can list containers with exited status.

Command:

$ docker container ls --filter "status=exited"

Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND   CREATED          STATUS                      PORTS     NAMES
38086474cb6c   debian    "bash"    51 minutes ago   Exited (0) 49 minutes ago             epic_jackson
1c955bac1a84   ubuntu    "bash"    2 hours ago      Exited (0) 48 minutes ago             musing_morse

List Recently Created Containers in Docker

It is also possible to return the latest containers using the -latest tag. This will return the current container(s) we have recently created.

Command:

$ docker container ls --latest

Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND   CREATED          STATUS                      PORTS     NAMES
38086474cb6c   debian    "bash"    55 minutes ago   Exited (0) 53 minutes ago             epic_jackson

List Containers in Terms of ID in Docker

We can also list containers in terms of their IDs, and we can do so by using the -q, also known as the quiet option, as shown below.

Command:

$ docker container ls -q

Output:

 d780996c499a
f7509cd49142
72c8debe5efa

List Containers Alongside their Size in Docker

We can also list containers alongside their size. We can determine those taking up the largest memory size, among other details.

We can achieve that by using the -s tag, also known as the size tag.

Command:

$ docker container ls -s

Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE          COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS         PORTS                                                 NAMES               SIZE
d780996c499a   4ac4842c584e   "/opt/sonarqube/bin/…"   3 minutes ago   Up 3 minutes   9000/tcp                                              amazing_benz        73.2kB (virtual 520MB)
f7509cd49142   5285cb69ea55   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   3 minutes ago   Up 3 minutes   27017/tcp                                             boring_wilson       0B (virtual 698MB)
72c8debe5efa   rabbitmq       "docker-entrypoint.s…"   4 minutes ago   Up 4 minutes   4369/tcp, 5671-5672/tcp, 15691-15692/tcp, 25672/tcp   determined_curran   0B (virtual 221MB)