Containers

The container command group covers the full lifecycle plus streaming attachments and backup/restore. All commands accept --host to target a specific host; otherwise the sticky host from dockerman host use is used.

List and inspect

dockerman container list
dockerman container list --pretty
dockerman container inspect web

list returns the same shape the GUI uses: id, name, image, state, port mappings, created time. Add --pretty for a column-aligned table.

Lifecycle

dockerman container start web
dockerman container stop web --timeout 10
dockerman container restart web --timeout 10
dockerman container pause web
dockerman container unpause web
dockerman container rename web web-old

stop and restart accept --timeout in seconds; the daemon sends SIGTERM, then SIGKILL after the timeout.

Create and clone

dockerman container create web nginx:latest --platform linux/amd64
dockerman container create web nginx:latest --config '{"HostConfig":{"AutoRemove":true}}'
dockerman container commit web --repo myrepo --tag snapshot --pause

--config accepts the JSON object itself. It does not read a file path. commit snapshots a running container into a new image.

Remove

dockerman container remove web --force --volumes --yes

remove is destructive. It requires --yes (or the global -y flag); without it the daemon rejects the call. Add --force to remove a running container, --volumes to delete anonymous volumes.

Logs

dockerman container logs web --tail 50
dockerman container logs web --follow --tail 5
dockerman container logs web --since 2026-05-01T00:00:00Z --timestamps
dockerman container logs web --follow --json

Without --json, plain stdout is log lines only; errors go to stderr. With --json, the CLI emits one streaming envelope per frame. --follow runs until you press Ctrl+C (exit 130) or the stream ends naturally (exit 0).

Stats

dockerman container stats web
dockerman container stats web --pretty

stats always streams. Each frame is one NDJSON line containing CPU, memory, network, and block I/O counters. Press Ctrl+C to stop (exit 130).

Terminal

dockerman container terminal web
dockerman container terminal web --shell /bin/bash --user root

Allocates a PTY through docker exec and attaches your terminal. The CLI refuses to run when stdin/stdout is not a TTY; pipe-based scripting should use dockerman call exec_* instead.

Backup and restore

Backup snapshots a container's filesystem (and optional bind mounts) into a single archive. Restore creates a new container from that archive.

dockerman container backup-targets web --pretty

dockerman container backup web \
  --output ./web.tar.gz \
  --pause \
  --include-all-safe-bind-mounts

dockerman container backup-preview ./web.tar.gz --pretty

dockerman container restore ./web.tar.gz \
  --name web-restored \
  --volume-strategy rename \
  --port 8080:80 \
  --yes