commit

Usage: docker commit [OPTIONS] CONTAINER [REPOSITORY[:TAG]]

Create a new image from a container's changes

  -a, --author=""     Author (e.g., "John Hannibal Smith <hannibal@a-team.com>")
  -c, --change=[]     Apply specified Dockerfile instructions while committing the image
  --help              Print usage
  -m, --message=""    Commit message
  -p, --pause=true    Pause container during commit

It can be useful to commit a container’s file changes or settings into a new image. This allows you debug a container by running an interactive shell, or to export a working dataset to another server. Generally, it is better to use Dockerfiles to manage your images in a documented and maintainable way.

The commit operation will not include any data contained in volumes mounted inside the container.

By default, the container being committed and its processes will be paused while the image is committed. This reduces the likelihood of encountering data corruption during the process of creating the commit. If this behavior is undesired, set the --pause option to false.

The --change option will apply Dockerfile instructions to the image that is created. Supported Dockerfile instructions: CMD|ENTRYPOINT|ENV|EXPOSE|LABEL|ONBUILD|USER|VOLUME|WORKDIR

Commit a container

$ docker ps
ID                  IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS
c3f279d17e0a        ubuntu:12.04        /bin/bash           7 days ago          Up 25 hours
197387f1b436        ubuntu:12.04        /bin/bash           7 days ago          Up 25 hours
$ docker commit c3f279d17e0a  svendowideit/testimage:version3
f5283438590d
$ docker images
REPOSITORY                        TAG                 ID                  CREATED             SIZE
svendowideit/testimage            version3            f5283438590d        16 seconds ago      335.7 MB

Commit a container with new configurations

$ docker ps
ID                  IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS
c3f279d17e0a        ubuntu:12.04        /bin/bash           7 days ago          Up 25 hours
197387f1b436        ubuntu:12.04        /bin/bash           7 days ago          Up 25 hours
$ docker inspect -f "{{ .Config.Env }}" c3f279d17e0a
[HOME=/ PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin]
$ docker commit --change "ENV DEBUG true" c3f279d17e0a  svendowideit/testimage:version3
f5283438590d
$ docker inspect -f "{{ .Config.Env }}" f5283438590d
[HOME=/ PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin DEBUG=true]

Commit a container with new CMD and EXPOSE instructions

$ docker ps
ID                  IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS
c3f279d17e0a        ubuntu:12.04        /bin/bash           7 days ago          Up 25 hours
197387f1b436        ubuntu:12.04        /bin/bash           7 days ago          Up 25 hours

$ docker commit --change='CMD ["apachectl", "-DFOREGROUND"]' -c "EXPOSE 80" c3f279d17e0a  svendowideit/testimage:version4
f5283438590d

$ docker run -d svendowideit/testimage:version4
89373736e2e7f00bc149bd783073ac43d0507da250e999f3f1036e0db60817c0

$ docker ps
ID                  IMAGE               COMMAND                 CREATED             STATUS              PORTS
89373736e2e7        testimage:version4  "apachectl -DFOREGROU"  3 seconds ago       Up 2 seconds        80/tcp
c3f279d17e0a        ubuntu:12.04        /bin/bash               7 days ago          Up 25 hours
197387f1b436        ubuntu:12.04        /bin/bash               7 days ago          Up 25 hours