When should I use Docker's container name?

Question

Hey there, new to docker here. So i was running the command docker ps -a, when I get this:

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                         COMMAND                CREATED             STATUS                      PORTS               NAMES
e3be2faeb751        centos:latest   touch /var/log/test   2 minutes ago       Exited (1) 2 minutes ago                        insane_kirch6

I did not mention any name, what is this name insane_kirch6 used for?

Answer 1

That is the name of your container. You can go ahead and name your container using the '--name' flag in your container run command. Since you did not give a name for the container docker generated a random name one

Example of naming a container:

$ sudo docker run --name my_container ubuntu

the above command should startup an ubuntu container with the name my_container.

Naming containers is important for establish links, Docker relies on the names of your containers to make any sort of connections between each other.

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To get to know more about how docker containers and the linking between them works check out docker training course.