Docker for Developers: Essential Commands in One Cheatsheet

5 comments

• $mdaniel 4 hours ago

    From host to container:
    docker cp ./local/file.txt container:/app/
  

  It's cruel to use the word container in a "cheatsheet" when it's actually a placeholder. Using ${container_id_or_name}:/app would make it more obvious and would actually error out if the user attempts to copy-paste

  In the spirit of being helpful, this is also good fun (but I think it does require a copy of /bin/tar in the image):

    tar -cf - my-dir my/file.txt | docker cp - ${container_id}:/my/dest/
  

  ---

  the "-e" also has two different syntaxes, depending on if one needs to rename the variable as it goes into the container:

    export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
    docker run -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID my.image
  
    # versus
  
    docker run -e AWS_KEY=$AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID my.image

• $a_ba 4 hours ago

  The docker-compose syntax ist valid for compose/v1 which was last updated in 2021. yet this article is from 2025. is vibe-docing now a thing also?

  [-]
  • $javatuts 4 hours ago

    Hey! Thanks for pointing it out. I just double-checked the article, and actually — nothing there is outdated

    [-]
    • $crtasm 3 hours ago

        $ docker-compose
        bash: docker-compose: command not found
      
        $ docker compose
        Usage:  docker compose [OPTIONS] COMMAND
        ...

• $zenethian 4 hours ago

  I kinda wish that it was an actual printable cheatsheet and not just a list of commands on a website that I have to bookmark and hope it's still up in a year.