What is the meaning of "docker ps -a"?

Question

Anyone who works with Docker regularly is familiar with the common commands docker ps and docker ps -a.

I know that docker ps lists all running containers in the Docker engine, but what does the "ps" actually mean?

I also know that docker ps -a has the effect of also listing containers that have stopped, but what does the -a actually mean?

Answer 1

-a is short form for the --all. option This option will show all the containers both stopped and running.

ps is an abbreviation for "process status". Normally, docker ps only shows the running containers, but adding the -a option causes it to show all containers.

You can find more details in the Docker "ps" options documentation.

Answer 2

ps means “Process Status”, so docker ps basically shows all of the Docker processes actively running.

docker ps lists all containers that are up and running.

-a means all (both stopped and running) containers.

Answer 3

docker ps = docker container list = docker container ls

All commands above are aliases.

The command docker ps is very useful. For example:

• docker container kill $(docker ps -q) — Kill all running containers.

• docker container rm $(docker ps -a -q) — Delete all not running containers.