How to list available docker containers using ps command on Linux

When having a multiple docker containers docker’ ps command can be useful to provide an information about all available docker containers residing on the system. By default docker ps will list all currently running containers on the system:

# docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE        COMMAND      CREATED      STATUS       PORTS        NAMES
b45f66998a4f ubuntu:14.04 "/bin/bash"  9 minutes agoUp 9 minutes              cocky_jang

To list all available running and stopped docker containers append -a option to the above docker ps command:

# docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID IMAGE        COMMAND      CREATED      STATUS       PORTS           NAMES
0b7045544535 centos:7     "/bin/bash"  8 minutes ago                             mycentos
b45f66998a4f ubuntu:14.04 "/bin/bash"  12 minutes agoUp 12 minutes               cocky_jang

docker ps command is also able to list a last created docker container by using -l option:

# docker ps -l
CONTAINER ID IMAGE        COMMAND     CREATED      STATUS       PORTS        NAMES
0b7045544535 centos:7     "/bin/bash" 9 minutes ago                          mycentos

Another option to list docker containers is to retrieve a list of all containers created after a specific container using --since option. For example let’s list all docker containers created after container named cocky_jang:

# docker ps --since="cocky_jang"
CONTAINER ID IMAGE        COMMAND      CREATED      STATUS       PORTS        NAMES
0b7045544535 centos:7     "/bin/bash"  13 minutes ago                         mycentos

Alternatively option --before will list docker containers created before a specific container. For example the below command will list all containers created before the mycentos docker container was created:

# docker ps --before="mycentos"
CONTAINER ID IMAGE        COMMAND      CREATED      STATUS        PORTS        NAMES
b45f66998a4f ubuntu:14.04 "/bin/bash"  21 minutes ago Up 21 minutes            cocky_jang