What is a Docker Image
Docker images are a read-only template which is a base foundation to create a container from. We need an image to start the container. Ther are a lot of pre-built images out there on the docker hub. You can also have your own custom image built with the help of Dockerfile and the command “docker build”.
Searching a Docker Image
To search an image on a Docker registry, run the following command.
# docker search [search term]
The search term can be anything like centos, if you want to search for a image having centos OS. For Example :
# docker search centos
Here,
NAME : Is the name of the docker image.
DESCRIPTION : A short description on what the image is about.
STARS : How many people have liked the image.
OFFICIAL : Specifies whether the image is built from a trusted source.
AUTOMATED : Tells whether the images is built automatically with a push in GitHub or Bitbucket repositories.
You can combine more options here like number of minimum stars the image has and/or is the images has the AUTOMATED flag set to [OK]. For Example:
# docker search --filter=stars=30 --filter=is-automated=true centos NAME DESCRIPTION STARS OFFICIAL AUTOMATED ansible/centos7-ansible Ansible on Centos7 103 [OK] jdeathe/centos-ssh CentOS-6 6.9 x86_64 / CentOS-7 7.4.1708 x8... 90 [OK] imagine10255/centos6-lnmp-php56 centos6-lnmp-php56 31 [OK]
To find more options and functionalities with “docker search” command, use the help option.
# docker search --help
Pulling a Docker Image
To pull an image from the Docker registry, run the following command:
# docker pull NAME[:TAG]
here,
NAME – The main group of images with similar role. For Example centos.
TAG – Image with a specific tag such as centos7.
For Example, to pull centos 6 image :
# docker pull centos:centos6 centos6: Pulling from library/centos b26de5a391ad: Pull complete Digest: sha256:ddb5ab83f18fb3d619c262b2c3aeb553857c9cab6aa864b5b6e7d7abf738d0b0 Status: Downloaded newer image for centos:centos6
By default, if you do not specify the optional tag field in the above command, the image with the latest tag gets pulled. You can also pull all the images from a specific tag. For Example :
# docker pull --all-tags fedora
Listing Docker Images
Run the below command to list all the images available locally on the system:
# docker images REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE fedora latest 422dc563ca32 3 days ago 252MB ubuntu latest dd6f76d9cc90 2 weeks ago 122MB hello-world latest 725dcfab7d63 2 weeks ago 1.84kB centos centos6 ea096efd33cc 2 weeks ago 194MB