How to List Containers in Docker?

Better Stack Team
Updated on August 1, 2022

Running containers

If you want to list all the running docker containers, you can use the docker container ls command, which takes the following form:

 
docker container ls

This command is valid on all newer versions of docker (1.13 or newer). For older docker version, use the following command

 
docker ps

This command is still available on new docker versions, but it is alias to the docker container ls command.

This is the expected output of the command:

 
Output:
CONTAINER ID    IMAGE        COMMAND                  CREATED        STATUS        PORTS       NAMES
c8bdef56da86    ubuntu     "docker-entrypoint.s…"   15 hours ago    Up 1 hours    5432/tcp    name
752g3a115fcf    postgres   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   17 hours ago    Up 1 hours    6379/tcp    name

All containers

To display all containers (the non-running included) you can use the -a option:

 
docker container ls -a

Make your mark

Join the writer's program

Are you a developer and love writing and sharing your knowledge with the world? Join our guest writing program and get paid for writing amazing technical guides. We'll get them to the right readers that will appreciate them.

Write for us
Writer of the month
Marin Bezhanov
Marin is a software engineer and architect with a broad range of experience working...
Build on top of Better Stack

Write a script, app or project on top of Better Stack and share it with the world. Make a public repository and share it with us at our email.

community@betterstack.com

or submit a pull request and help us build better products for everyone.

See the full list of amazing projects on github