Docker: what is the equivalent of the legacy --link parameter

Question

I need to connect my db container with my server container. Now I just red about the legacy parameter --link, which works perfect

$> docker run -d -P --name rethinkdb1 rethinkdb
$> docker run -d --link rethinkdb:db my-server

But, if this parameter will be dropped eventually, how would I do something like the above ?

Answer 1

The docs says to use the docker network command instead (which is available since Docker 1.9.0 - 2015-11-03)

Instead of

$> docker run -d -P --name rethinkdb rethinkdb
$> docker run -d --link rethinkdb:rethinkdb my-server

you will now use

$> docker network create --name my-network
$> docker run -d -P --name rethinkdb1 --net=my-network rethinkdb
$> docker run -d --net=my-network my-server

Note that in the new form, container names are used, while before you were able to define an alias.

When two containers are part of the same network, their /etc/hosts file is updated so that you can use the container names instead of their IP addresses.