Trick to loop/autorefresh docker ps view like top/htop in bash

Question

Is it possible - and if yes, how - to have a self-refreshing view of current Docker containers printed by "docker ps" alike top/htop utilities?

score 88 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 01 '17 at 18:05

88

Use watch:

watch docker ps

answered Apr 01 '17 at 18:05

hek2mgl

5

I had to install watch with brew first: `brew install watch`. Thanks! – Richard May 17 '17 at 20:04
it complains when I try to pass arguments like --format – George Katsanos Aug 06 '18 at 10:24
1

Use quotes: https://superuser.com/questions/276701/using-the-watch-command-with-an-argument-that-contains-quotes – hek2mgl Aug 06 '18 at 10:28
unfortunately still fails: `watch "docker stats --format 'table {{.Names}}\t{{.Image}}\t{{.Status}}'" ` – George Katsanos Aug 06 '18 at 10:34
2

Your --format didn't work for me. probably a version issue. But check this for example: `watch 'docker stats --no-stream --format "table {{.Container}}\t{{.CPUPerc}}\t{{.MemUsage}}"' ` – hek2mgl Aug 06 '18 at 10:51
When you have [two levels of nesting](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/23349/), prefer to use single quotes around the outer command, e.g., `watch 'sudo docker ps --format "table {{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}"'`. – Yamaneko May 11 '21 at 20:49
use `watch -d -n 10 docker ps` to highlight changes (`-d`) and update only every 10 seconds (`-n 10`). – Datz Aug 04 '21 at 07:19

Avichal Badaya · Answer 2 · 2017-04-01T22:26:19.473

30

Few options:

You can try command docker stats, which will give you some details about current running containers id, cpu%, memory etc. Something similar to top/htop which you asked for.
Command docker top CONTAINER [ps OPTIONS] : It displays the running processes of a container.
There are also some applications available which gives nice view of your docker ecosystem. Eg- Kitematic, Kevana

edited Apr 01 '17 at 22:26

answered Apr 01 '17 at 17:49

Avichal Badaya

3

Should be the correct answer to me since it does not require additional tool (like `watch`) – teemoo Jul 12 '19 at 06:56

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 01 '17 at 23:15

As alternative to watch, there is an alias shown to loop docker stats (watch: might not be always available by default)

This creates a bash alias "ds"

alias ds='while true; do TEXT=$(docker stats --no-stream $(docker ps --format={{.Names}})); sleep 0.1; clear; echo "$TEXT"; done'

3 Answers3