Inspecting container details in Docker - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Inspecting container details

📖 Scenario: You are working with Docker containers on your local machine. You want to learn how to check details about running containers to understand their status and configuration.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to list running Docker containers, identify a container by its name, and inspect detailed information about that container.

📋 What You'll Learn

Use the docker ps command to list running containers

Identify the container name from the list

Use the docker inspect <container_name> command to view detailed container information

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Inspecting container details helps you understand how your applications run inside Docker containers and troubleshoot issues.

💼 Career

Knowing how to inspect containers is essential for DevOps roles to monitor, debug, and manage containerized applications.

1

List running Docker containers

Run the command docker ps to list all running Docker containers on your machine.

Docker

# Run the command to list running containers
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use docker ps to see running containers.

2

Identify a container name

From the output of docker ps, find the exact container name you want to inspect. Assign this name as a string to a variable called container_name in your shell or script.

Docker

docker ps
# Assign the container name you want to inspect to variable container_name
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Look at the last column in docker ps output for the container name. Use that exact name in container_name.

3

Inspect the container details

Use the command docker inspect $container_name to get detailed information about the container stored in the variable container_name.

Docker

docker ps
container_name="my_container"
# Run docker inspect on the container_name variable
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use docker inspect $container_name to see detailed info.

4

Display container's IP address

From the output of docker inspect $container_name, extract and display only the container's IP address using the command docker inspect -f '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' $container_name.

Docker

docker ps
container_name="my_container"
docker inspect $container_name
# Display only the container's IP address
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the -f flag with docker inspect and the Go template {{ .NetworkSettings.Networks.bridge.IPAddress }} to get the IP address.