1. Overview
In this article, we will learn to list all stopped docker containers. You can learn more about docker by referring to these articles.
A docker image is a template or blueprint for containers. It is a sharable package with all the code, required tools, runtime, and dependencies to run that specific code. Containers are based on docker images and concrete running instances of images. Docker is a tool for creating and managing containers.
2. Docker list all stopped containers
You might already be familiar with the docker ps command to list the running containers.
The docker ps command only shows running containers by default. It
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 207ad40bbe73 5baa2684eb37 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 27 minutes ago Up 27 minutes 8081/tcp epic_bardeen
However, adding flags to this command would enable us to customize the behaviour. To see all containers, use the -a (or --all) flag with the docker ps command like below:
> docker ps -a
It lists all containers including stopped, running, and so on.
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 207ad40bbe73 5baa2684eb37 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 53 seconds ago Up 51 seconds 8081/tcp epic_bardeen 4dde333d7640 5baa2684eb37 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 3 minutes ago Exited (137) About a minute ago frosty_joliot 6d12d35591f4 9f356a6e96f4 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 6 weeks ago Exited (255) 6 weeks ago 0.0.0.0:8082->8081/tcp vigorous_fermi dccb12d24bdb 9f356a6e96f4 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 6 weeks ago Exited (137) 6 weeks ago silly_knuth 4bc407c80d99 9f356a6e96f4 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 6 weeks ago Exited (1) 6 weeks ago pensive_leakey 0173039d404f 9f356a6e96f4 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 6 weeks ago Exited (137) 6 weeks ago laughing_burnell daccdfc13b81 9f356a6e96f4 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 6 weeks ago Exited (137) 6 weeks ago awesome_rosalind
If you want to list only stopped containers, you can use the filtering flag (-f or --filter) of the docker ps command to filter the containers based on their status. The format of the filtering flag is a key=value pair.
The status filter matches containers by status. You can filter using created, restarting, running, removing, paused, exited and dead. For example, to filter for exited \ stopped containers:
> docker ps -all --filter 'status=exited' CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 4dde333d7640 5baa2684eb37 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 32 minutes ago Exited (137) 29 minutes ago frosty_joliot
Alternatively, you can use the exited filter that matches containers by exist status code.
For example, if you want to filter all containers exited successfully.
docker ps -a --filter 'exited=0'
You can use a filter to locate containers that exited with an exit status of 137 meaning a SIGKILL(9) killed them. For example, stopping containers using docker stop also creates an exit status 137.
> docker ps -a --filter 'exited=137' CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 4dde333d7640 5baa2684eb37 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 36 minutes ago Exited (137) 34 minutes ago frosty_joliot dccb12d24bdb 9f356a6e96f4 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 6 weeks ago Exited (137) 6 weeks ago silly_knuth 0173039d404f 9f356a6e96f4 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 6 weeks ago Exited (137) 6 weeks ago laughing_burnell daccdfc13b81 9f356a6e96f4 "docker-entrypoint.s…" 6 weeks ago Exited (137) 6 weeks ago awesome_rosalind
3. Conclusion
To sum up, we have learned to list all stopped containers in the docker.