docker container create

Description

The docker container create (or shorthand: docker create) command creates a new container from the specified image, without starting it.

When creating a container, the Docker daemon creates a writeable container layer over the specified image and prepares it for running the specified command. The container ID is then printed to STDOUT. This is similar to docker run -d except the container is never started. You can then use the docker container start (or shorthand: docker start) command to start the container at any point.

This is useful when you want to set up a container configuration ahead of time so that it's ready to start when you need it. The initial status of the new container is created.

The docker create command shares most of its options with the docker run command (which performs a docker create before starting it). Refer to the docker run CLI reference for details on the available flags and options.

Options

Examples

Create and start a container

The following example creates an interactive container with a pseudo-TTY attached, then starts the container and attaches to it:

$ docker container create -i -t --name mycontainer alpine
6d8af538ec541dd581ebc2a24153a28329acb5268abe5ef868c1f1a261221752

$ docker container start --attach -i mycontainer
/ # echo hello world
hello world

The above is the equivalent of a docker run:

$ docker run -it --name mycontainer2 alpine
/ # echo hello world
hello world

Initialize volumes

Container volumes are initialized during the docker create phase (i.e., docker run too). For example, this allows you to create the data volume container, and then use it from another container:

$ docker create -v /data --name data ubuntu

240633dfbb98128fa77473d3d9018f6123b99c454b3251427ae190a7d951ad57

$ docker run --rm --volumes-from data ubuntu ls -la /data

total 8
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Dec  5 04:10 .
drwxr-xr-x 48 root root 4096 Dec  5 04:11 ..

Similarly, create a host directory bind mounted volume container, which can then be used from the subsequent container:

$ docker create -v /home/docker:/docker --name docker ubuntu

9aa88c08f319cd1e4515c3c46b0de7cc9aa75e878357b1e96f91e2c773029f03

$ docker run --rm --volumes-from docker ubuntu ls -la /docker

total 20
drwxr-sr-x  5 1000 staff  180 Dec  5 04:00 .
drwxr-xr-x 48 root root  4096 Dec  5 04:13 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1 1000 staff 3833 Dec  5 04:01 .ash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 1000 staff  446 Nov 28 11:51 .ashrc
-rw-r--r--  1 1000 staff   25 Dec  5 04:00 .gitconfig
drwxr-sr-x  3 1000 staff   60 Dec  1 03:28 .local
-rw-r--r--  1 1000 staff  920 Nov 28 11:51 .profile
drwx--S---  2 1000 staff  460 Dec  5 00:51 .ssh
drwxr-xr-x 32 1000 staff 1140 Dec  5 04:01 docker