🐳 How to See All Running Docker Containers

Docker containers are an efficient and scalable way to run applications. As you work with Docker, you’ll often need to check which containers are running, stopped, or paused. This guide walks you through all the key commands to list Docker containers, with real example outputs for each scenario.

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✅ How to List All Running Containers

Use the following command to view all currently running containers:

docker ps

📤 Example Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE  COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS         PORTS                  NAMES
a1b2c3d4e5f6   nginx  "/docker-entrypoint.…"   2 minutes ago   Up 2 minutes   0.0.0.0:8080->80/tcp   my-nginx

Columns Explained:

• CONTAINER ID – Unique container identifier
• IMAGE – Docker image used
• COMMAND – Entry point or shell command
• CREATED – How long ago it was started
• STATUS – Indicates if it’s running or not
• PORTS – Port mappings
• NAMES – Container name (custom or auto-generated)

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🔍 View All Containers (Including Stopped)

To see both running and stopped containers, use:

docker ps -a

📤 Example Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS                      PORTS                  NAMES
a1b2c3d4e5f6   nginx     "/docker-entrypoint.…"   5 minutes ago   Exited (0) 1 minute ago                             my-nginx
c7d8e9f0g1h2   ubuntu    "/bin/bash"              10 minutes ago  Up 3 minutes                0.0.0.0:9090->80/tcp   my-ubuntu

Use this when debugging stopped containers or checking historical container activity.

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⚙️ Advanced Listing Options

Here are additional ways to customize your container listings:

Command	Description
docker ps -q	Show only container IDs (useful for scripting)
docker ps --filter "status=running"	Show only containers in a specific state
docker ps --format "table {{.ID}}\t{{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}"	Customize output format
docker ps -n 3	Show the last 3 created containers
docker ps -s	Show container size (disk usage)

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🔧 Examples with Outputs

1. List only container IDs

docker ps -q

📤 Example Output:

a1b2c3d4e5f6
c7d8e9f0g1h2

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2. List only exited containers

docker ps --filter "status=exited"

📤 Example Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS                      NAMES
a1b2c3d4e5f6   nginx     "/docker-entrypoint.…"   15 minutes ago  Exited (0) 2 minutes ago    my-nginx

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3. Find containers using a specific image (e.g., nginx)

docker ps --filter "ancestor=nginx"

📤 Example Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS         PORTS                  NAMES
a1b2c3d4e5f6   nginx     "/docker-entrypoint.…"   5 minutes ago   Up 5 minutes   0.0.0.0:8080->80/tcp   my-nginx

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4. Show containers with a name prefix (e.g., my-app)

docker ps --filter "name=my-app"

📤 Example Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE         COMMAND     CREATED        STATUS       PORTS     NAMES
b2c3d4e5f6g7   node:latest   "npm start" 8 minutes ago  Up 8 minutes           my-app-server

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5. Format Output with Custom Columns

docker ps --format "table {{.ID}}\t{{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}"

📤 Example Output:

CONTAINER ID   NAMES          STATUS
a1b2c3d4e5f6   my-nginx       Up 2 minutes
b2c3d4e5f6g7   my-app-server  Up 8 minutes

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✅ Final Thought

Monitoring and managing your containers starts with mastering the docker ps command. Whether you’re checking active workloads or debugging failed ones, these tools give you total visibility and control.

🔗 For more advanced management, check the official Docker ps docs.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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📌 Q1: How do I see the logs of a running container?

docker logs my-nginx

📤 Sample Output:

172.17.0.1 - - [11/Apr/2025:12:00:00 +0000] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 612 "-" "Mozilla/5.0"

➡️ For real-time logs, use:

docker logs -f my-nginx

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📌 Q2: How do I stop all running containers?

docker stop $(docker ps -q)

📤 Example Output:

my-nginx
my-app-server

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📌 Q3: How do I remove all stopped containers?

docker rm $(docker ps -aq)

📤 Example Output:

my-nginx
ubuntu-test
old-db

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📌 Q4: How do I check real-time container resource usage (CPU, Memory)?

docker stats

📤 Sample Output:

CONTAINER ID   NAME          CPU %     MEM USAGE / LIMIT     NET I/O         BLOCK I/O        PIDS
a1b2c3d4e5f6   my-nginx      0.03%     10.5MiB / 2GiB         1.2kB / 2.5kB   0B / 0B          2

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📌 Q5: How do I rename a container?

docker rename my-nginx web-server

📤 Output:

no output if successful)

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