Managing Containers

The core commands you use every day to start, stop, inspect, and rebuild your stack.

List running containers

docker ps

To see only the containers from this project:

docker compose ps

Enter a container

Open a shell inside a running container to run commands in it.

1. List the running containers with docker ps.
2. Enter the one you want:

   docker compose exec {container-name} bash

   Example, enter the MySQL container:

   docker compose exec mysql bash

   Example, open the MySQL prompt directly:

   docker compose exec mysql mysql -udefault -psecret

3. Type exit to leave.

tip

add --user=laradock to run as the Laradock user so created files are owned by your host user: docker compose exec --user=laradock workspace bash.

Stop containers

Stop everything:

docker compose stop

Stop a single container:

docker compose stop {container-name}

Delete containers

docker compose down

View logs

NGINX writes its logs to the logs/nginx directory. For any other container, use:

docker compose logs {container-name}

Follow the log live with -f:

docker compose logs -f {container-name}

See the Docker Compose logs options for more.

Build or rebuild containers

After editing any Dockerfile, rebuild for the change to take effect:

docker compose build

Rebuild a single container instead of all of them:

docker compose build {container-name}

Use --no-cache to force a full, clean rebuild:

docker compose build --no-cache {container-name}

Edit a container's Compose config

Everything about a service lives in its folder: its container definition in <service>/compose.yml and its settings in <service>/defaults.env. For plain value changes (ports, versions, credentials), don't edit files at all, just override the variable in your .env. Edit <service>/compose.yml only for structural changes.

Change the MySQL database name (in mysql/compose.yml):

    environment:
        MYSQL_DATABASE: laradock
    ...

Map Redis to a different host port (1111), no file editing needed, just add to your .env:

REDIS_PORT=1111

Edit a Docker image

1. Find the image's Dockerfile, for mysql it's mysql/Dockerfile.
2. Edit it as you like.
3. Rebuild the container:

   docker compose build mysql

Add more services

To add a new service (software), create a folder for it containing a compose.yml with your container definition (plus a defaults.env for its settings, if any), then register it in the root docker-compose.yml by adding an include entry like the existing ones. You'll want to be familiar with the Docker Compose file syntax.