How to Name or Rename Docker Containers

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Docker is a set of platform as a service products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers. Containers are isolated from one another and bundle their software, libraries, and configuration files -- they can communicate with each other through well-defined channels. Because all of the containers share the services of a single operating system kernel, they use fewer resources than virtual machines.

Prerequisites

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It requires Docker installed and Docker Container running on the server.

For detailed installation, refer to Docker installation.

Naming a Docker Container

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By default, a Docker container will have UUID as an identifier. You can find out by running docker images on the command line to get this information.

You can give a unique name for each container by using the --name.

Note: You can Start and Stop the container using this unique name!!

docker run -d --name Custom_name_here centos

• You will have to provide a name for your docker container in place of Custom_name_here.
• In this example, centos is a docker image that we had pulled before hand.

Output:

root@vps:~# docker run -d --name my_project centos
8280db405ef0d58f0e105d85697333ad1272bc67c5f00b8a7a33bc64a0db0c67

To run the Container you need to get the Container ID or Name -- enter the following command to get the required information.

docker ps -l

Output:

root@vps:~# docker ps -l
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND       CREATED         STATUS                     PORTS     NAMES
64dcb5a85587   centos    "/bin/bash"   7 seconds ago   Exited (0) 6 seconds ago             my_project

Renaming a Docker Container

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Run the following command to Rename the Docker Container.

docker rename  my_project my_centos_project

• You will have to provide a New name for your docker container in place of New-name.

Output:

docker rename my_project my_centos_project

To confirm the Docker Container New name.

docker ps -l

Output:

root@vps:~# docker ps -l
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND       CREATED         STATUS                     PORTS     NAMES
64dcb5a85587   centos    "/bin/bash"   7 minutes ago   Exited (0) 7 minutes ago             my_centos_project