How to take actions on multiple docker containers at once - eviltoast

Again, please tell me if there is a better way to do this.

While testing docker, frequently I need to start/stop/rm containers. I got real sick of having to ls them and copy paste the container ID.

Using this alias, I just have to remember a single part of the name of the container, and I will get the container IDs that can then be included as part of another command:

$ alias dcl='_dcl(){ docker container ls -aq -f name="$1";}; _dcl'

$ dcl snikket
b3fcbc808cc9
1947885fbb24
054d67d2e8b9
d8fe9df5f61f

So now that I’m getting a list of IDs, I can easily, for example, pause all of them:

$ docker container pause $( dcl snikket )
Error response from daemon: container  is not running
Error response from daemon: container  is not running
Error response from daemon: container  is not running
Error response from daemon: container  is not running

The containers weren’t actually running, but this shows the alias working.

dcl obviously stands for ‘docker container ls’

  • xlash123@sh.itjust.works
    2·
    11 months ago

    Just a few shortcuts that may help:

    • docker ps is an alias for docker container ls
    • as long as it can be uniquely identified, a prefix of the container ID can be used instead of copy pasting the entire ID
    • you can use container names instead of IDs
    • tab completion works for container names

    As someone else suggested though, docker compose is probably best suited for this job, but hopefully this helps in other situations.