Docker & Docker Compose - Comprehensive Guide

Table of Contents

1. Docker Basics
2. Image Management
3. Container Management
4. Network Management
5. Volume Management
6. Docker Compose
7. Best Practices
8. Troubleshooting

Docker Basics

Installation & Configuration

# Install Docker (Ubuntu)
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
 
# Post-installation steps
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl start docker
 
# Configure Docker daemon
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/docker/daemon.json
{
    "log-driver": "json-file",
    "log-opts": {
        "max-size": "10m",
        "max-file": "3"
    },
    "default-address-pools": [
        {
            "base": "172.17.0.0/16",
            "size": 24
        }
    ]
}
EOF

Basic Commands

# Version and info
docker version
docker info
docker system info
 
# Login to registry
docker login [registry-url]
 
# System cleanup
docker system prune -a --volumes
docker system df

Image Management

Building Images

# Basic build
docker build -t image-name:tag .
 
# Build with arguments
docker build \
    --build-arg ARG_NAME=value \
    --build-arg HTTP_PROXY=$HTTP_PROXY \
    -t image-name:tag .
 
# Multi-stage build
cat <<EOF > Dockerfile
# Build stage
FROM node:14 AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm install
COPY . .
RUN npm run build
 
# Production stage
FROM nginx:alpine
COPY --from=builder /app/dist /usr/share/nginx/html
EXPOSE 80
CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"]
EOF
 
# Build with specific target
docker build --target builder -t build-image .

Image Operations

# List images
docker images
docker image ls --format "table {{.ID}}\t{{.Repository}}\t{{.Size}}"
 
# Pull images
docker pull image:tag
docker pull --all-tags image
 
# Tag images
docker tag source-image:tag target-image:tag
 
# Save and load images
docker save image:tag > image.tar
docker load < image.tar
 
# Inspect image
docker image inspect image:tag
docker history image:tag
 
# Remove images
docker rmi image:tag
docker image prune -a --filter "until=24h"

Container Management

Running Containers

# Basic run
docker run -d \
    --name container-name \
    -p 8080:80 \
    image:tag
 
# Run with advanced options
docker run -d \
    --name container-name \
    --restart unless-stopped \
    --memory="512m" \
    --cpus="0.5" \
    -e ENV_VAR=value \
    -v /host/path:/container/path \
    --network network-name \
    --health-cmd="curl -f http://localhost/ || exit 1" \
    --health-interval=5m \
    image:tag
 
# Run with specific user/group
docker run -d \
    --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
    image:tag
 
# Run interactive shell
docker run -it \
    --rm \
    image:tag /bin/bash

Container Operations

# List containers
docker ps
docker ps -a --format "table {{.ID}}\t{{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}"
 
# Container lifecycle
docker start container-name
docker stop container-name
docker restart container-name
docker pause container-name
docker unpause container-name
 
# Execute commands
docker exec -it container-name /bin/bash
docker exec container-name env
 
# Copy files
docker cp container-name:/path/file.txt ./local/path/
docker cp ./local/file.txt container-name:/path/
 
# View logs
docker logs -f container-name
docker logs --since 5m container-name
docker logs --tail 100 container-name
 
# Monitor containers
docker stats
docker top container-name

Network Management

Network Operations

# Create network
docker network create \
    --driver bridge \
    --subnet 172.18.0.0/16 \
    --gateway 172.18.0.1 \
    network-name
 
# List networks
docker network ls
docker network inspect network-name
 
# Connect/disconnect containers
docker network connect network-name container-name
docker network disconnect network-name container-name
 
# Network troubleshooting
docker run -it --rm \
    --network container:target-container \
    nicolaka/netshoot

[Continue to Part 2…]

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