DockerCLI/docs/reference/commandline/create.md

create

Creates a new container.

Usage:  docker create [OPTIONS] IMAGE [COMMAND] [ARG...]

Create a new container

Options:
      --add-host value              Add a custom host-to-IP mapping (host:ip) (default [])
  -a, --attach value                Attach to STDIN, STDOUT or STDERR (default [])
      --blkio-weight value          Block IO (relative weight), between 10 and 1000
      --blkio-weight-device value   Block IO weight (relative device weight) (default [])
      --cap-add value               Add Linux capabilities (default [])
      --cap-drop value              Drop Linux capabilities (default [])
      --cgroup-parent string        Optional parent cgroup for the container
      --cidfile string              Write the container ID to the file
      --cpu-percent int             CPU percent (Windows only)
      --cpu-period int              Limit CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) period
      --cpu-quota int               Limit CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) quota
  -c, --cpu-shares int              CPU shares (relative weight)
      --cpuset-cpus string          CPUs in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1)
      --cpuset-mems string          MEMs in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1)
      --device value                Add a host device to the container (default [])
      --device-read-bps value       Limit read rate (bytes per second) from a device (default [])
      --device-read-iops value      Limit read rate (IO per second) from a device (default [])
      --device-write-bps value      Limit write rate (bytes per second) to a device (default [])
      --device-write-iops value     Limit write rate (IO per second) to a device (default [])
      --disable-content-trust       Skip image verification (default true)
      --dns value                   Set custom DNS servers (default [])
      --dns-opt value               Set DNS options (default [])
      --dns-search value            Set custom DNS search domains (default [])
      --entrypoint string           Overwrite the default ENTRYPOINT of the image
  -e, --env value                   Set environment variables (default [])
      --env-file value              Read in a file of environment variables (default [])
      --expose value                Expose a port or a range of ports (default [])
      --group-add value             Add additional groups to join (default [])
      --health-cmd string           Command to run to check health
      --health-interval duration    Time between running the check
      --health-retries int          Consecutive failures needed to report unhealthy
      --health-timeout duration     Maximum time to allow one check to run
      --help                        Print usage
  -h, --hostname string             Container host name
  -i, --interactive                 Keep STDIN open even if not attached
      --io-maxbandwidth string      Maximum IO bandwidth limit for the system drive (Windows only)
      --io-maxiops uint             Maximum IOps limit for the system drive (Windows only)
      --ip string                   Container IPv4 address (e.g. 172.30.100.104)
      --ip6 string                  Container IPv6 address (e.g. 2001:db8::33)
      --ipc string                  IPC namespace to use
      --isolation string            Container isolation technology
      --kernel-memory string        Kernel memory limit
  -l, --label value                 Set meta data on a container (default [])
      --label-file value            Read in a line delimited file of labels (default [])
      --link value                  Add link to another container (default [])
      --link-local-ip value         Container IPv4/IPv6 link-local addresses (default [])
      --log-driver string           Logging driver for the container
      --log-opt value               Log driver options (default [])
      --mac-address string          Container MAC address (e.g. 92:d0:c6:0a:29:33)
  -m, --memory string               Memory limit
      --memory-reservation string   Memory soft limit
      --memory-swap string          Swap limit equal to memory plus swap: '-1' to enable unlimited swap
      --memory-swappiness int       Tune container memory swappiness (0 to 100) (default -1)
      --name string                 Assign a name to the container
      --network-alias value         Add network-scoped alias for the container (default [])
      --network string              Connect a container to a network (default "default")
                                    'bridge': create a network stack on the default Docker bridge
                                    'none': no networking
                                    'container:<name|id>': reuse another container's network stack
                                    'host': use the Docker host network stack
                                    '<network-name>|<network-id>': connect to a user-defined network
      --no-healthcheck              Disable any container-specified HEALTHCHECK
      --oom-kill-disable            Disable OOM Killer
      --oom-score-adj int           Tune host's OOM preferences (-1000 to 1000)
      --pid string                  PID namespace to use
      --pids-limit int              Tune container pids limit (set -1 for unlimited), kernel >= 4.3
      --privileged                  Give extended privileges to this container
  -p, --publish value               Publish a container's port(s) to the host (default [])
  -P, --publish-all                 Publish all exposed ports to random ports
      --read-only                   Mount the container's root filesystem as read only
      --restart string              Restart policy to apply when a container exits (default "no")
                                    Possible values are: no, on-failure[:max-retry], always, unless-stopped
      --runtime string              Runtime to use for this container
      --security-opt value          Security Options (default [])
      --shm-size string             Size of /dev/shm, default value is 64MB.
                                    The format is `<number><unit>`. `number` must be greater than `0`.
                                    Unit is optional and can be `b` (bytes), `k` (kilobytes), `m` (megabytes),
                                    or `g` (gigabytes). If you omit the unit, the system uses bytes.
      --stop-signal string          Signal to stop a container, SIGTERM by default (default "SIGTERM")
      --storage-opt value           Storage driver options for the container (default [])
      --sysctl value                Sysctl options (default map[])
      --tmpfs value                 Mount a tmpfs directory (default [])
  -t, --tty                         Allocate a pseudo-TTY
      --ulimit value                Ulimit options (default [])
  -u, --user string                 Username or UID (format: <name|uid>[:<group|gid>])
      --userns string               User namespace to use
                                    'host': Use the Docker host user namespace
                                    '': Use the Docker daemon user namespace specified by `--userns-remap` option.
      --uts string                  UTS namespace to use
  -v, --volume value                Bind mount a volume (default []). The comma-delimited
                                    `options` are [rw|ro], [z|Z],
                                    [[r]shared|[r]slave|[r]private], and
                                    [nocopy]. The 'host-src' is an absolute path
                                    or a name value.
      --volume-driver string        Optional volume driver for the container
      --volumes-from value          Mount volumes from the specified container(s) (default [])
  -w, --workdir string              Working directory inside the container

The docker create command 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 start <container_id> 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 is ready to start when you need it. The initial status of the new container is created.

Please see the run command section and the Docker run reference for more details.

Examples

$ docker create -t -i fedora bash
6d8af538ec541dd581ebc2a24153a28329acb5268abe5ef868c1f1a261221752
$ docker start -a -i 6d8af538ec5
bash-4.2#

As of v1.4.0 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

Set storage driver options per container.

$ docker create -it --storage-opt size=120G fedora /bin/bash

This (size) will allow to set the container rootfs size to 120G at creation time. User cannot pass a size less than the Default BaseFS Size. This option is only available for the devicemapper, btrfs, windowsfilter, and zfs graph drivers.

Specify isolation technology for container (--isolation)

This option is useful in situations where you are running Docker containers on Windows. The --isolation=<value> option sets a container's isolation technology. On Linux, the only supported is the default option which uses Linux namespaces. On Microsoft Windows, you can specify these values:

Value	Description
default	Use the value specified by the Docker daemon's --exec-opt . If the daemon does not specify an isolation technology, Microsoft Windows uses process as its default value if the
daemon is running on Windows server, or hyperv if running on Windows client.
process	Namespace isolation only.
hyperv	Hyper-V hypervisor partition-based isolation.

Specifying the --isolation flag without a value is the same as setting --isolation="default".