docker create

Description

Create a new container

Usage

docker create [OPTIONS] IMAGE [COMMAND] [ARG...]

Options

Name, shorthand	Default	Description
--add-host		Add a custom host-to-IP mapping (host:ip)
--attach, -a		Attach to STDIN, STDOUT or STDERR
--blkio-weight	0	Block IO (relative weight), between 10 and 1000, or 0 to disable (default 0)
--blkio-weight-device		Block IO weight (relative device weight)
--cap-add		Add Linux capabilities
--cap-drop		Drop Linux capabilities
--cgroup-parent		Optional parent cgroup for the container
--cidfile		Write the container ID to the file
--cpu-count	0	CPU count (Windows only)
--cpu-percent	0	CPU percent (Windows only)
--cpu-period	0	Limit CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) period
--cpu-quota	0	Limit CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) quota
--cpu-rt-period	0	Limit CPU real-time period in microseconds
--cpu-rt-runtime	0	Limit CPU real-time runtime in microseconds
--cpu-shares, -c	0	CPU shares (relative weight)
--cpus	0.000	Number of CPUs
--cpuset-cpus		CPUs in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1)
--cpuset-mems		MEMs in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1)
--credentialspec		Credential spec for managed service account (Windows only)
--device		Add a host device to the container
--device-read-bps		Limit read rate (bytes per second) from a device
--device-read-iops		Limit read rate (IO per second) from a device
--device-write-bps		Limit write rate (bytes per second) to a device
--device-write-iops		Limit write rate (IO per second) to a device
--disable-content-trust	true	Skip image verification
--dns		Set custom DNS servers
--dns-opt		Set DNS options
--dns-option		Set DNS options
--dns-search		Set custom DNS search domains
--entrypoint		Overwrite the default ENTRYPOINT of the image
--env, -e		Set environment variables
--env-file		Read in a file of environment variables
--expose		Expose a port or a range of ports
--group-add		Add additional groups to join
--health-cmd		Command to run to check health
--health-interval	0s	Time between running the check (ns|us|ms|s|m|h) (default 0s)
--health-retries	0	Consecutive failures needed to report unhealthy
--health-timeout	0s	Maximum time to allow one check to run (ns|us|ms|s|m|h) (default 0s)
--help	false	Print usage
--hostname, -h		Container host name
--init	false	Run an init inside the container that forwards signals and reaps processes
--init-path		Path to the docker-init binary
--interactive, -i	false	Keep STDIN open even if not attached
--io-maxbandwidth		Maximum IO bandwidth limit for the system drive (Windows only)
--io-maxiops	0	Maximum IOps limit for the system drive (Windows only)
--ip		Container IPv4 address (e.g. 172.30.100.104)
--ip6		Container IPv6 address (e.g. 2001:db8::33)
--ipc		IPC namespace to use
--isolation		Container isolation technology
--kernel-memory		Kernel memory limit
--label, -l		Set meta data on a container
--label-file		Read in a line delimited file of labels
--link		Add link to another container
--link-local-ip		Container IPv4/IPv6 link-local addresses
--log-driver		Logging driver for the container
--log-opt		Log driver options
--mac-address		Container MAC address (e.g. 92:d0:c6:0a:29:33)
--memory, -m		Memory limit
--memory-reservation		Memory soft limit
--memory-swap		Swap limit equal to memory plus swap: ‘-1’ to enable unlimited swap
--memory-swappiness	-1	Tune container memory swappiness (0 to 100)
--name		Assign a name to the container
--net	default	Connect a container to a network
--net-alias		Add network-scoped alias for the container
--network	default	Connect a container to a network
--network-alias		Add network-scoped alias for the container
--no-healthcheck	false	Disable any container-specified HEALTHCHECK
--oom-kill-disable	false	Disable OOM Killer
--oom-score-adj	0	Tune host’s OOM preferences (-1000 to 1000)
--pid		PID namespace to use
--pids-limit	0	Tune container pids limit (set -1 for unlimited)
--privileged	false	Give extended privileges to this container
--publish, -p		Publish a container’s port(s) to the host
--publish-all, -P	false	Publish all exposed ports to random ports
--read-only	false	Mount the container’s root filesystem as read only
--restart	no	Restart policy to apply when a container exits
--rm	false	Automatically remove the container when it exits
--runtime		Runtime to use for this container
--security-opt		Security Options
--shm-size		Size of /dev/shm, default value is 64MB
--stop-signal	SIGTERM	Signal to stop a container, SIGTERM by default
--stop-timeout	0	Timeout (in seconds) to stop a container
--storage-opt		Storage driver options for the container
--sysctl	map[]	Sysctl options
--tmpfs		Mount a tmpfs directory
--tty, -t	false	Allocate a pseudo-TTY
--ulimit		Ulimit options
--user, -u		Username or UID (format: <name|uid>[:<group|gid>])
--userns		User namespace to use
--uts		UTS namespace to use
--volume, -v		Bind mount a volume
--volume-driver		Optional volume driver for the container
--volumes-from		Mount volumes from the specified container(s)
--workdir, -w		Working directory inside the container

Parent command

Command	Description
docker	The base command for the Docker CLI.

Extended description

The docker create command creates a writeable container layer over the specified image and prepares it for running the specified command. The container ID is then printed to STDOUT. This is similar to docker run -d except the container is never started. You can then use the docker start <container_id> command to start the container at any point.

This is useful when you want to set up a container configuration ahead of time so that it is ready to start when you need it. The initial status of the new container is created.

Please see the run command section and the Docker run reference for more details.

Examples

Create and start a container

$ docker create -t -i fedora bash

6d8af538ec541dd581ebc2a24153a28329acb5268abe5ef868c1f1a261221752

$ docker start -a -i 6d8af538ec5

bash-4.2#

Initialize volumes

As of v1.4.0 container volumes are initialized during the docker create phase (i.e., docker run too). For example, this allows you to create the data volume container, and then use it from another container:

$ docker create -v /data --name data ubuntu

240633dfbb98128fa77473d3d9018f6123b99c454b3251427ae190a7d951ad57

$ docker run --rm --volumes-from data ubuntu ls -la /data

total 8
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Dec  5 04:10 .
drwxr-xr-x 48 root root 4096 Dec  5 04:11 ..

Similarly, create a host directory bind mounted volume container, which can then be used from the subsequent container:

$ docker create -v /home/docker:/docker --name docker ubuntu

9aa88c08f319cd1e4515c3c46b0de7cc9aa75e878357b1e96f91e2c773029f03

$ docker run --rm --volumes-from docker ubuntu ls -la /docker

total 20
drwxr-sr-x  5 1000 staff  180 Dec  5 04:00 .
drwxr-xr-x 48 root root  4096 Dec  5 04:13 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1 1000 staff 3833 Dec  5 04:01 .ash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 1000 staff  446 Nov 28 11:51 .ashrc
-rw-r--r--  1 1000 staff   25 Dec  5 04:00 .gitconfig
drwxr-sr-x  3 1000 staff   60 Dec  1 03:28 .local
-rw-r--r--  1 1000 staff  920 Nov 28 11:51 .profile
drwx--S---  2 1000 staff  460 Dec  5 00:51 .ssh
drwxr-xr-x 32 1000 staff 1140 Dec  5 04:01 docker

Set storage driver options per container.

$ docker create -it --storage-opt size=120G fedora /bin/bash

This (size) will allow to set the container rootfs size to 120G at creation time. This option is only available for the devicemapper, btrfs, overlay2, windowsfilter and zfs graph drivers. For the devicemapper, btrfs, windowsfilter and zfs graph drivers, user cannot pass a size less than the Default BaseFS Size. For the overlay2 storage driver, the size option is only available if the backing fs is xfs and mounted with the pquota mount option. Under these conditions, user can pass any size less then the backing fs size.

Specify isolation technology for container (–isolation)

This option is useful in situations where you are running Docker containers on Windows. The --isolation=<value> option sets a container’s isolation technology. On Linux, the only supported is the default option which uses Linux namespaces. On Microsoft Windows, you can specify these values:

Value	Description
default	Use the value specified by the Docker daemon’s --exec-opt . If the daemon does not specify an isolation technology, Microsoft Windows uses process as its default value if the
daemon is running on Windows server, or hyperv if running on Windows client.
process	Namespace isolation only.
hyperv	Hyper-V hypervisor partition-based isolation.

Specifying the --isolation flag without a value is the same as setting --isolation="default".