docker run

docker run is the command that creates and starts a new container based on an image. It's also the command you'll run into most often in everyday Docker use.

Commonly used options

• -d — run in the background

• -p — map a host port to a container port

• --name — give the container a name

• -e — set an environment variable

• --rm — auto-remove the container once it's done

# Run Alpine Linux and print a message
# --rm removes the container after the command finishes
docker run --rm alpine echo "hello from docker"

# Run Nginx in the background with a name
docker run --name web-demo -d -p 8080:80 nginx

The first command uses the Alpine Linux image to print a message. Because of --rm, the container gets deleted as soon as the task finishes. The second command runs the Nginx web server in the background and names it web-demo.

The terminal will show "hello from docker". For the Nginx command, you'll be able to open localhost:8080 in your browser.