Containers

Lifecycle, logs, stats, terminal, and backup/restore commands for Docker 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 ./run.json
dockerman container commit web --repo myrepo --tag snapshot --pause

--config accepts a JSON file with the same shape as bollard::ContainerCreateOptions. 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).

--until is incompatible with --follow; the CLI rejects the combination before opening a stream. Use --since/--until for historical fetches and --follow/--since for tailing.

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.

Inspect what would be archived

dockerman container backup-targets web --pretty

Lists the container's volumes and bind mounts, plus a safe_to_archive flag for each bind mount.

Create the archive

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

Use --include-bind-mount <index> to opt in per mount, --no-pause to skip the pause/unpause cycle, --force to override safe_to_archive warnings.

Preview an archive

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

Shows the manifest without restoring.

Restore

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

Restore is destructive (it creates a new container that may collide with names/volumes), so --yes is required. --volume-strategy is one of rename, skip, overwrite.

Backup paths are resolved on the CLI side to absolute local paths before being sent to the daemon. The daemon refuses relative paths, symlinks pointing outside the workspace, and paths the user cannot read.

Containers

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