What does COMMAND in 'docker ps' mean?

user_6303377 0
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docker ps or docker container ls returns an overview of all running containers. The meaning of all columns is clear to me, except one. What does the column 'COMMAND' mean?

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docker
2 Answers

This is the command which is passed to the container. 

$ docker run -d busybox top
$docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID     IMAGE      COMMAND     CREATED        STATUS        PORTS    NAMES
3eca7c034b21     busybox    "top"       6 seconds ago  Up 5 seconds           recursing_dirac

If you check above, top is the command which has been passed to the busybox container and that's what it's showing in the docker ps -a.

user_80901740

It's the command passed to docker run <image> [command].

$ docker run -d ubuntu sleep 60
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID      IMAGE      COMMAND        CREATED           STATUS
f0c9cd92a938      ubuntu     "sleep 60"     3 seconds ago     Up 1 second

If no command was specified there then it's the CMD from the Dockerfile. In ubuntu's case that would be CMD ["/bin/bash"]:

$ docker run -di ubuntu
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID      IMAGE      COMMAND        CREATED           STATUS
9cd752ee86f4      ubuntu     "/bin/bash"    4 seconds ago     Up 2 seconds
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