docker ps

Options

`-a`	`--all`		Show all containers. Without `--all`, only running containers are shown.
`-f`	`--filter`	`filter`	Filter output based on conditions provided
	`--format`	`string`	Pretty-print containers using a Go template
`-n`	`--last`	`n`	Show `n` last created containers, regardless of their state. The default for `n` is `-1`
`-l`	`--latest`		Show the latest created container, regardless of its state
	`--no-trunc`		Don't truncate output
`-q`	`--quiet`		Only display container IDs
`-s`	`--size`		Display total file sizes

Display running containers

docker ps lists running containers.

In this example, no container is running, so an empty list is returned:

C:\> docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES

Start a new container:

C:\> docker run -it mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809 cmd.exe
C:\>

This (running) new container can now be seen with docker ps in another console or terminal (or cmd.exe or PowerShell on Windows):

C:\> docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                                       COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
8b0d27e6dd49        mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809   "cmd.exe"           5 minutes ago       Up 5 minutes                            infallible_haslett

Display all containers

In order to see all containers, running and previously running, docker ps -a can be used:

C:\> docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                                       COMMAND                   CREATED             STATUS                         PORTS               NAMES
8b0d27e6dd49        mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809   "cmd.exe"                 7 minutes ago       Up 7 minutes                                       infallible_haslett
04f949ba4462        mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809   "cmd.exe"                 23 minutes ago      Exited (9009) 21 minutes ago                       musing_haibt
5811d62cf83f        mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809   "cmd.exe"                 20 hours ago        Exited (0) 20 hours ago                            thirsty_turing
299444befdee        hello-world                                 "cmd /C 'type C:\\hel…"   20 hours ago        Exited (0) 20 hours ago                            adoring_babbage
f33e6b639326        hello-world                                 "cmd /C 'type C:\\hel…"   21 hours ago        Exited (0) 21 hours ago                            upbeat_bartik
ada3b521615d        hello-world                                 "cmd /C 'type C:\\hel…"   21 hours ago        Exited (0) 21 hours ago                            nifty_cray

Print the entire command

Long commands are truncted by docker ps:

$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                         COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS                   PORTS                    NAMES
43bd9c883cf8   container-registry.oracle.com/database/free   "/bin/sh -c 'exec $O…"   4 minutes ago   Up 4 minutes (healthy)   0.0.0.0:1521->1521/tcp   ora23c

The following variation prints the entire command:

$ docker ps --no-trunc --format "{{.Command}}"
"/bin/sh -c 'exec $ORACLE_BASE/$RUN_FILE'"

Filtering containers

The result set of docker ps can be filtered with docker ps … -filter "key=value":

C:\> docker ps -a --filter "exited=9009"
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                                       COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS                         PORTS               NAMES
04f949ba4462        mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809   "cmd.exe"           26 minutes ago      Exited (9009) 24 minutes ago                       musing_haibt

Possible key names are

`id`	The id of a container
`name`	The name of a container
`label`	?
`exited`	the exit code of a container, useful only with `-a`
`status`	`created`, `restarting`, `running`, `removing`, `paused`, `exited` or `dead`
`ancestor`	`<image-name>`, `<image-name>:<tag>`, `<image-id>` or `<image@digest>`.
`before / since`	finds containers that were created before or after a container that is identified by its id or name
`volume`
`network`
`publish / expose`
`health`	`starting`, `healthy`, `unhealthy` or `none`
`isolation`	Only on Windows: one of `default`, `process` or `hyperv`
`is-task`	`true` or `false`

Format result

The --format argument specifies a Go template which controls which columns are listed in the output of docker ps:

docker ps -a --format 'table {{.ID}}\t{{.Image}}\t{{.Command}}\t{{.CreatedAt}}\t{{.Status}}'