Docker Cheat Sheet

Docker commands you need every day — images, containers, volumes, networks, Compose, and Dockerfile patterns in one quick-reference page.

7 sections 23 snippets

Images

Build an image

docker build -t myapp:latest .
docker build -t myapp:v1.0 -f Dockerfile.prod .

List images

docker images
docker images --filter 'dangling=true'

Pull and push

docker pull nginx:alpine
docker tag myapp:latest registry.io/myapp:latest
docker push registry.io/myapp:latest

Remove images

docker rmi myapp:latest
docker image prune          # remove dangling
docker image prune -a       # remove all unused

Containers

Run a container

docker run -d --name web -p 8080:80 nginx:alpine
docker run -it --rm ubuntu bash
docker run -d -e DB_HOST=db --env-file .env myapp

List containers

docker ps            # running
docker ps -a         # all

Stop and remove

docker stop web
docker rm web
docker rm -f web     # force
docker container prune

Exec into container

docker exec -it web sh
docker exec web cat /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Logs

docker logs web
docker logs -f web          # follow
docker logs --tail 50 web   # last 50 lines

Volumes

Create and list

docker volume create mydata
docker volume ls

Mount volumes

docker run -v mydata:/app/data myapp
docker run -v $(pwd)/src:/app/src myapp

Use named volumes for persistence, bind mounts for development

Remove

docker volume rm mydata
docker volume prune

Networks

Create and list

docker network create mynet
docker network ls

Connect containers

docker run -d --network mynet --name api myapp
docker run -d --network mynet --name db postgres

Containers on the same network can reach each other by name

Inspect

docker network inspect mynet

Dockerfile Patterns

Basic Dockerfile

FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --production
COPY . .
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Multi-stage build

FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN npm ci && npm run build

FROM nginx:alpine
COPY --from=builder /app/dist /usr/share/nginx/html

.dockerignore

node_modules
.git
*.md
.env
dist

Docker Compose

Basic compose.yaml

services:
  web:
    build: .
    ports:
      - '3000:3000'
    environment:
      - DB_HOST=db
    depends_on:
      - db
  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: secret

volumes:
  pgdata:

Commands

docker compose up -d
docker compose down
docker compose logs -f web
docker compose exec web sh
docker compose build --no-cache

Profiles

# compose.yaml
services:
  debug:
    profiles: [dev]
    image: busybox

# Run with profile:
docker compose --profile dev up

Cleanup

Remove everything unused

docker system prune          # containers, networks, images
docker system prune -a       # include unused images
docker system prune --volumes

Disk usage

docker system df
docker system df -v

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