To get the details of a container we can use docker inspect
command like this –
docker inspect {container_id}
Or this –
docker inspect {container_name}
Let’s see this in action. First we will start a node container using run
command –
docker run -idt --name my-node-container node
You can see that we applied custom name and used -idt
flags. Now let’s inspect this container –
docker inspect my-node-container

Understanding Inspect Response
You can see from the image that we got a json. It is incomplete in the image. When you run this command on your terminal, you will get a huge json with tons of data. The actual json will look like this –
[
{
"Id": "83ad004978c....",
"Created": "2022-07-21T06:49:36.461026749Z",
"Path": "docker-entrypoint.sh",
"Args": [
"node"
],
"State": {
"Status": "running",
"Running": true,
"Paused": false,
"Restarting": false,
"OOMKilled": false,
"Dead": false,
"Pid": 1447,
"ExitCode": 0,
"Error": "",
"StartedAt": "2022-07-21T06:49:37.010693223Z",
"FinishedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
},
"Image": "sha256:a67015ce5a5....",
"ResolvConfPath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/83ad004..../resolv.conf",
"HostnamePath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/83ad0..../hostname",
"HostsPath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/83ad00..../hosts",
"LogPath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/83ad00....-json.log",
"Name": "/my-node-container",
"RestartCount": 0,
"Driver": "overlay2",
"Platform": "linux",
"MountLabel": "",
"ProcessLabel": "",
"AppArmorProfile": "",
"ExecIDs": null,
"HostConfig": {
"Binds": null,
"ContainerIDFile": "",
"LogConfig": {
"Type": "json-file",
"Config": {}
},
"NetworkMode": "default",
"PortBindings": {},
"RestartPolicy": {
"Name": "no",
"MaximumRetryCount": 0
},
"AutoRemove": false,
"VolumeDriver": "",
"VolumesFrom": null,
"CapAdd": null,
"CapDrop": null,
"CgroupnsMode": "host",
"Dns": [],
"DnsOptions": [],
"DnsSearch": [],
"ExtraHosts": null,
"GroupAdd": null,
"IpcMode": "private",
"Cgroup": "",
"Links": null,
"OomScoreAdj": 0,
"PidMode": "",
"Privileged": false,
"PublishAllPorts": false,
"ReadonlyRootfs": false,
"SecurityOpt": null,
"UTSMode": "",
"UsernsMode": "",
"ShmSize": 67108864,
"Runtime": "runc",
"ConsoleSize": [
30,
120
],
"Isolation": "",
"CpuShares": 0,
"Memory": 0,
"NanoCpus": 0,
"CgroupParent": "",
"BlkioWeight": 0,
"BlkioWeightDevice": [],
"BlkioDeviceReadBps": null,
"BlkioDeviceWriteBps": null,
"BlkioDeviceReadIOps": null,
"BlkioDeviceWriteIOps": null,
"CpuPeriod": 0,
"CpuQuota": 0,
"CpuRealtimePeriod": 0,
"CpuRealtimeRuntime": 0,
"CpusetCpus": "",
"CpusetMems": "",
"Devices": [],
"DeviceCgroupRules": null,
"DeviceRequests": null,
"KernelMemory": 0,
"KernelMemoryTCP": 0,
"MemoryReservation": 0,
"MemorySwap": 0,
"MemorySwappiness": null,
"OomKillDisable": false,
"PidsLimit": null,
"Ulimits": null,
"CpuCount": 0,
"CpuPercent": 0,
"IOMaximumIOps": 0,
"IOMaximumBandwidth": 0,
"MaskedPaths": [
"/proc/asound",
"/proc/acpi",
"/proc/kcore",
"/proc/keys",
"/proc/latency_stats",
"/proc/timer_list",
"/proc/timer_stats",
"/proc/sched_debug",
"/proc/scsi",
"/sys/firmware"
],
"ReadonlyPaths": [
"/proc/bus",
"/proc/fs",
"/proc/irq",
"/proc/sys",
"/proc/sysrq-trigger"
]
},
"GraphDriver": {
"Data": {
"LowerDir": "....",
"MergedDir": "/var/lib/docker/overlay2/35e..../merged",
"UpperDir": "/var/lib/docker/overlay2/35ea..../diff",
"WorkDir": "/var/lib/docker/overlay2/35eae..../work"
},
"Name": "overlay2"
},
"Mounts": [],
"Config": {
"Hostname": "83ad004978c6",
"Domainname": "",
"User": "",
"AttachStdin": false,
"AttachStdout": false,
"AttachStderr": false,
"Tty": true,
"OpenStdin": true,
"StdinOnce": false,
"Env": [
"PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin",
"NODE_VERSION=18.5.0",
"YARN_VERSION=1.22.19"
],
"Cmd": [
"node"
],
"Image": "node",
"Volumes": null,
"WorkingDir": "",
"Entrypoint": [
"docker-entrypoint.sh"
],
"OnBuild": null,
"Labels": {}
},
"NetworkSettings": {
"Bridge": "",
"SandboxID": "5644bd1....",
"HairpinMode": false,
"LinkLocalIPv6Address": "",
"LinkLocalIPv6PrefixLen": 0,
"Ports": {},
"SandboxKey": "/var/run/docker/netns/5644bd1cf63a",
"SecondaryIPAddresses": null,
"SecondaryIPv6Addresses": null,
"EndpointID": "03a546....",
"Gateway": "172.17.0.1",
"GlobalIPv6Address": "",
"GlobalIPv6PrefixLen": 0,
"IPAddress": "172.17.0.2",
"IPPrefixLen": 16,
"IPv6Gateway": "",
"MacAddress": "02:42:ac:11:00:02",
"Networks": {
"bridge": {
"IPAMConfig": null,
"Links": null,
"Aliases": null,
"NetworkID": "5ebed356....",
"EndpointID": "03a546ca....,
"Gateway": "172.17.0.1",
"IPAddress": "172.17.0.2",
"IPPrefixLen": 16,
"IPv6Gateway": "",
"GlobalIPv6Address": "",
"GlobalIPv6PrefixLen": 0,
"MacAddress": "02:42:ac:11:00:02",
"DriverOpts": null
}
}
}
}
]
This returns a lot of important information like container id, name, ports, environment variables, network, volume, entrypoint etc.
Kubernetes Series
- Introduction to Kubernetes
- Introduction to Docker, Containers, Images & Repository
- Install and Run Docker Images
- Docker Image – FROM, RUN, COPY, ENTRYPOINT, CMD, EXPOSE explained
- Why docker run or start command not running my container?
- How to list all docker images in system?
- How to list all docker containers?
- How to start/stop a docker container?
- Difference between docker run and docker start
- How to bind docker container port with host?
- How to get logs of docker container?
- How to live stream logs of docker container?
- Set custom name to a docker container
- Access docker container filesystem & terminal
- Getting docker details using docker inspect