# community.docker.docker_container module – manage Docker containers

Note

This module is part of the community.docker collection (version 3.4.6).

To install it, use: `ansible-galaxy collection install community.docker`. You need further requirements to be able to use this module, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: `community.docker.docker_container`.

## Synopsis

- Manage the life cycle of Docker containers.

- Supports check mode. Run with `--check` and `--diff` to view config difference and list of actions to be taken.

## Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

- Docker API >= 1.25

- backports.ssl_match_hostname (when using TLS on Python 2)

- paramiko (when using SSH with use_ssh_client=false)

- pyOpenSSL (when using TLS)

- pywin32 (when using named pipes on Windows 32)

- requests

## Parameters

Parameter | Comments
--- | ---

api_version

aliases: docker_api_version

string

The version of the Docker API running on the Docker Host.

Defaults to the latest version of the API supported by this collection and the docker daemon.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_API_VERSION` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used.

Default: `"auto"`

auto_remove

boolean

Enable auto-removal of the container on daemon side when the container’s process exits.

If container_default_behavior is set to `compatibility`, this option has a default of `false`.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

blkio_weight integer | Block IO (relative weight), between 10 and 1000.
ca_cert aliases: tls_ca_cert, cacert_path path | Use a CA certificate when performing server verification by providing the path to a CA certificate file. If the value is not specified in the task and the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` is set, the file `ca.pem` from the directory specified in the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` will be used.
cap_drop list / elements=string | List of capabilities to drop from the container.
capabilities list / elements=string | List of capabilities to add to the container. This is equivalent to `docker run --cap-add`, or the docker-compose option `cap_add`.
cgroup_parent string added in community.docker 1.1.0 | Specify the parent cgroup for the container.

cgroupns_mode

string

added in community.docker 3.0.0

Specify the cgroup namespace mode for the container.

The Docker CLI calls this simply `cgroupns`.

Choices:

- `"host"`

- `"private"`

cleanup

boolean

Use with detach=false to remove the container after successful execution.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

client_cert aliases: tls_client_cert, cert_path path | Path to the client’s TLS certificate file. If the value is not specified in the task and the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` is set, the file `cert.pem` from the directory specified in the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` will be used.
client_key aliases: tls_client_key, key_path path | Path to the client’s TLS key file. If the value is not specified in the task and the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` is set, the file `key.pem` from the directory specified in the environment variable `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` will be used.
command any | Command to execute when the container starts. A command may be either a string or a list. Prior to version 2.4, strings were split on commas. See command_handling for differences in how strings and lists are handled.

command_handling

string

added in community.docker 1.9.0

The default behavior for command (when provided as a list) and entrypoint is to convert them to strings without considering shell quoting rules. (For comparing idempotency, the resulting string is split considering shell quoting rules.)

Also, setting command to an empty list of string, and setting entrypoint to an empty list will be handled as if these options are not specified. This is different from idempotency handling for other container-config related options.

When this is set to `compatibility`, which was the default until community.docker 3.0.0, the current behavior will be kept.

When this is set to `correct`, these options are kept as lists, and an empty value or empty list will be handled correctly for idempotency checks. This has been the default since community.docker 3.0.0.

Choices:

- `"compatibility"`

- `"correct"` ← (default)

comparisons

dictionary

Allows to specify how properties of existing containers are compared with module options to decide whether the container should be recreated / updated or not.

Only options which correspond to the state of a container as handled by the Docker daemon can be specified, as well as networks.

Must be a dictionary specifying for an option one of the keys `strict`, `ignore` and `allow_more_present`.

If `strict` is specified, values are tested for equality, and changes always result in updating or restarting. If `ignore` is specified, changes are ignored.

`allow_more_present` is allowed only for lists, sets and dicts. If it is specified for lists or sets, the container will only be updated or restarted if the module option contains a value which is not present in the container’s options. If the option is specified for a dict, the container will only be updated or restarted if the module option contains a key which is not present in the container’s option, or if the value of a key present differs.

The wildcard option `*` can be used to set one of the default values `strict` or `ignore` to all comparisons which are not explicitly set to other values.

See the examples for details.

container_default_behavior

string

In older versions of this module, various module options used to have default values. This caused problems with containers which use different values for these options.

The default value is now `no_defaults`. To restore the old behavior, set it to `compatibility`, which will ensure that the default values are used when the values are not explicitly specified by the user.

This affects the auto_remove, detach, init, interactive, memory, paused, privileged, read_only and tty options.

Choices:

- `"compatibility"`

- `"no_defaults"` ← (default)

cpu_period integer | Limit CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) period. See cpus for an easier to use alternative.
cpu_quota integer | Limit CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) quota. See cpus for an easier to use alternative.
cpu_shares integer | CPU shares (relative weight).
cpus float | Specify how much of the available CPU resources a container can use. A value of `1.5` means that at most one and a half CPU (core) will be used.
cpuset_cpus string | CPUs in which to allow execution `1,3` or `1-3`.
cpuset_mems string | Memory nodes (MEMs) in which to allow execution `0-3` or `0,1`.

debug

boolean

Debug mode

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

default_host_ip

string

added in community.docker 1.2.0

Define the default host IP to use.

Must be an empty string, an IPv4 address, or an IPv6 address.

With Docker 20.10.2 or newer, this should be set to an empty string (`""`) to avoid the port bindings without an explicit IP address to only bind to IPv4. See https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.docker/issues/70 for details.

By default, the module will try to auto-detect this value from the `bridge` network’s `com.docker.network.bridge.host_binding_ipv4` option. If it cannot auto-detect it, it will fall back to `0.0.0.0`.

detach

boolean

Enable detached mode to leave the container running in background.

If disabled, the task will reflect the status of the container run (failed if the command failed).

If container_default_behavior is set to `compatibility`, this option has a default of `true`.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

device_read_bps list / elements=dictionary | List of device path and read rate (bytes per second) from device.
path string / required | Device path in the container.
rate string / required | Device read limit in format `<number>[<unit>]`. Number is a positive integer. Unit can be one of `B` (byte), `K` (kibibyte, 1024B), `M` (mebibyte), `G` (gibibyte), `T` (tebibyte), or `P` (pebibyte). Omitting the unit defaults to bytes.
device_read_iops list / elements=dictionary | List of device and read rate (IO per second) from device.
path string / required | Device path in the container.
rate integer / required | Device read limit. Must be a positive integer.
device_requests list / elements=dictionary added in community.docker 0.1.0 | Allows to request additional resources, such as GPUs.
capabilities list / elements=list | List of lists of strings to request capabilities. The top-level list entries are combined by OR, and for every list entry, the entries in the list it contains are combined by AND. The driver tries to satisfy one of the sub-lists. Available capabilities for the `nvidia` driver can be found at https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-container-runtime.
count integer | Number or devices to request. Set to `-1` to request all available devices.
device_ids list / elements=string | List of device IDs.
driver string | Which driver to use for this device.
options dictionary | Driver-specific options.
device_write_bps list / elements=dictionary | List of device and write rate (bytes per second) to device.
path string / required | Device path in the container.
rate string / required | Device read limit in format `<number>[<unit>]`. Number is a positive integer. Unit can be one of `B` (byte), `K` (kibibyte, 1024B), `M` (mebibyte), `G` (gibibyte), `T` (tebibyte), or `P` (pebibyte). Omitting the unit defaults to bytes.
device_write_iops list / elements=dictionary | List of device and write rate (IO per second) to device.
path string / required | Device path in the container.
rate integer / required | Device read limit. Must be a positive integer.
devices list / elements=string | List of host device bindings to add to the container. Each binding is a mapping expressed in the format `<path_on_host>:<path_in_container>:<cgroup_permissions>`.
dns_opts list / elements=string | List of DNS options.
dns_search_domains list / elements=string | List of custom DNS search domains.
dns_servers list / elements=string | List of custom DNS servers.

docker_host

aliases: docker_url

string

The URL or Unix socket path used to connect to the Docker API. To connect to a remote host, provide the TCP connection string. For example, `tcp://192.0.2.23:2376`. If TLS is used to encrypt the connection, the module will automatically replace `tcp` in the connection URL with `https`.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_HOST` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used.

Default: `"unix://var/run/docker.sock"`

domainname string | Container domainname.
entrypoint list / elements=string | Command that overwrites the default `ENTRYPOINT` of the image. See command_handling for differences in how strings and lists are handled.

env

dictionary

Dictionary of key,value pairs.

Values which might be parsed as numbers, booleans or other types by the YAML parser must be quoted (for example `"true"`) in order to avoid data loss.

Please note that if you are passing values in with Jinja2 templates, like `"{{ value }}"`, you need to add `| string` to prevent Ansible to convert strings such as `"true"` back to booleans. The correct way is to use `"{{ value | string }}"`.

env_file path | Path to a file, present on the target, containing environment variables FOO=BAR. If variable also present in env, then the env value will override.
etc_hosts dictionary | Dict of host-to-IP mappings, where each host name is a key in the dictionary. Each host name will be added to the container’s `/etc/hosts` file.
exposed_ports aliases: exposed, expose list / elements=string | List of additional container ports which informs Docker that the container listens on the specified network ports at runtime. If the port is already exposed using `EXPOSE` in a Dockerfile, it does not need to be exposed again.

force_kill

aliases: forcekill

boolean

Use the kill command when stopping a running container.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

groups list / elements=string | List of additional group names and/or IDs that the container process will run as.

healthcheck

dictionary

Configure a check that is run to determine whether or not containers for this service are “healthy”.

See the docs for the HEALTHCHECK Dockerfile instruction for details on how healthchecks work.

interval, timeout and start_period are specified as durations. They accept duration as a string in a format that look like: `5h34m56s`, `1m30s` etc. The supported units are `us`, `ms`, `s`, `m` and `h`.

interval string | Time between running the check. The default used by the Docker daemon is `30s`.
retries integer | Consecutive number of failures needed to report unhealthy. The default used by the Docker daemon is `3`.
start_period string | Start period for the container to initialize before starting health-retries countdown. The default used by the Docker daemon is `0s`.
test any | Command to run to check health. Must be either a string or a list. If it is a list, the first item must be one of `NONE`, `CMD` or `CMD-SHELL`.
timeout string | Maximum time to allow one check to run. The default used by the Docker daemon is `30s`.
hostname string | The container’s hostname.

ignore_image

boolean

When state is `present` or `started`, the module compares the configuration of an existing container to requested configuration. The evaluation includes the image version. If the image version in the registry does not match the container, the container will be recreated. You can stop this behavior by setting ignore_image to `true`.

Warning: This option is ignored if `image: ignore` or `*: ignore` is specified in the comparisons option.

This option is deprecated since community.docker 3.2.0 and will be removed in community.docker 4.0.0. Use `image: ignore` in comparisons instead of ignore_image=true.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

image string | Repository path and tag used to create the container. If an image is not found or pull is true, the image will be pulled from the registry. If no tag is included, `latest` will be used. Can also be an image ID. If this is the case, the image is assumed to be available locally. The pull option is ignored for this case.

image_comparison

string

added in community.docker 3.0.0

Determines which image to use for idempotency checks that depend on image parameters.

The default, `desired-image`, will use the image that is provided to the module via the image parameter.

`current-image` will use the image that the container is currently using, if the container exists. It falls back to the image that is provided in case the container does not yet exist.

This affects the env, env_file, exposed_ports, labels, and volumes options.

Choices:

- `"desired-image"` ← (default)

- `"current-image"`

image_label_mismatch

string

added in community.docker 2.6.0

How to handle labels inherited from the image that are not set explicitly.

When `ignore`, labels that are present in the image but not specified in labels will be ignored. This is useful to avoid having to specify the image labels in labels while keeping labels comparisons `strict`.

When `fail`, if there are labels present in the image which are not set from labels, the module will fail. This prevents introducing unexpected labels from the base image.

Warning: This option is ignored unless `labels: strict` or `*: strict` is specified in the comparisons option.

Choices:

- `"ignore"` ← (default)

- `"fail"`

image_name_mismatch

string

added in community.docker 3.2.0

Determines what the module does if the image matches, but the image name in the container’s configuration does not match the image name provided to the module.

This is ignored if `image: ignore` is set in comparisons.

If set to `recreate` the container will be recreated.

If set to `ignore` the container will not be recreated because of this. It might still get recreated for other reasons. This has been the default behavior of the module for a long time, but might not be what users expect.

Choices:

- `"recreate"`

- `"ignore"` ← (default)

init

boolean

Run an init inside the container that forwards signals and reaps processes.

If container_default_behavior is set to `compatibility`, this option has a default of `false`.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

interactive

boolean

Keep stdin open after a container is launched, even if not attached.

If container_default_behavior is set to `compatibility`, this option has a default of `false`.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

ipc_mode string | Set the IPC mode for the container. Can be one of `container:<name|id>` to reuse another container’s IPC namespace or `host` to use the host’s IPC namespace within the container.

keep_volumes

boolean

Retain anonymous volumes associated with a removed container.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true` ← (default)

kernel_memory string | Kernel memory limit in format `<number>[<unit>]`. Number is a positive integer. Unit can be `B` (byte), `K` (kibibyte, 1024B), `M` (mebibyte), `G` (gibibyte), `T` (tebibyte), or `P` (pebibyte). Minimum is `4M`. Omitting the unit defaults to bytes.
kill_signal string | Override default signal used to kill a running container.
labels dictionary | Dictionary of key value pairs.
links list / elements=string | List of name aliases for linked containers in the format `container_name:alias`. Setting this will force container to be restarted.
log_driver string | Specify the logging driver. Docker uses `json-file` by default. See here for possible choices.
log_options aliases: log_opt dictionary | Dictionary of options specific to the chosen log_driver. See https://docs.docker.com/engine/admin/logging/overview/ for details. log_driver needs to be specified for log_options to take effect, even if using the default `json-file` driver.
mac_address string | Container MAC address (for example, `92:d0:c6:0a:29:33`).
memory string | Memory limit in format `<number>[<unit>]`. Number is a positive integer. Unit can be `B` (byte), `K` (kibibyte, 1024B), `M` (mebibyte), `G` (gibibyte), `T` (tebibyte), or `P` (pebibyte). Omitting the unit defaults to bytes. If container_default_behavior is set to `compatibility`, this option has a default of `"0"`.
memory_reservation string | Memory soft limit in format `<number>[<unit>]`. Number is a positive integer. Unit can be `B` (byte), `K` (kibibyte, 1024B), `M` (mebibyte), `G` (gibibyte), `T` (tebibyte), or `P` (pebibyte). Omitting the unit defaults to bytes.
memory_swap string | Total memory limit (memory + swap) in format `<number>[<unit>]`, or the special values `unlimited` or `-1` for unlimited swap usage. Number is a positive integer. Unit can be `B` (byte), `K` (kibibyte, 1024B), `M` (mebibyte), `G` (gibibyte), `T` (tebibyte), or `P` (pebibyte). Omitting the unit defaults to bytes.
memory_swappiness integer | Tune a container’s memory swappiness behavior. Accepts an integer between 0 and 100. If not set, the value will be remain the same if container exists and will be inherited from the host machine if it is (re-)created.
mounts list / elements=dictionary | Specification for mounts to be added to the container. More powerful alternative to volumes.

consistency

string

The consistency requirement for the mount.

Choices:

- `"cached"`

- `"consistent"`

- `"default"`

- `"delegated"`

labels dictionary | User-defined name and labels for the volume. Only valid for the `volume` type.

no_copy

boolean

False if the volume should be populated with the data from the target. Only valid for the `volume` type.

The default value is `false`.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

propagation

string

Propagation mode. Only valid for the `bind` type.

Choices:

- `"private"`

- `"rprivate"`

- `"shared"`

- `"rshared"`

- `"slave"`

- `"rslave"`

read_only

boolean

Whether the mount should be read-only.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

source string | Mount source. For example, this can be a volume name or a host path. If not supplied when type=volume an anonymous volume will be created.
target string / required | Path inside the container.
tmpfs_mode string | The permission mode for the tmpfs mount.
tmpfs_size string | The size for the tmpfs mount in bytes in format <number>[<unit>]. Number is a positive integer. Unit can be one of `B` (byte), `K` (kibibyte, 1024B), `M` (mebibyte), `G` (gibibyte), `T` (tebibyte), or `P` (pebibyte). Omitting the unit defaults to bytes.

type

string

The mount type.

Note that `npipe` is only supported by Docker for Windows.

Choices:

- `"bind"`

- `"npipe"`

- `"tmpfs"`

- `"volume"` ← (default)

volume_driver string | Specify the volume driver. Only valid for the `volume` type. See here for details.
volume_options dictionary | Dictionary of options specific to the chosen volume_driver. See here for details.
name string / required | Assign a name to a new container or match an existing container. When identifying an existing container name may be a name or a long or short container ID.

network_mode

string

Connect the container to a network. Choices are `bridge`, `host`, `none`, `container:<name|id>`, `<network_name>` or `default`.

Since community.docker 2.0.0, if networks_cli_compatible is `true` and networks contains at least one network, the default value for network_mode is the name of the first network in the networks list. You can prevent this by explicitly specifying a value for network_mode, like the default value `default` which will be used by Docker if network_mode is not specified.

networks

list / elements=dictionary

List of networks the container belongs to.

For examples of the data structure and usage see EXAMPLES below.

To remove a container from one or more networks, use `networks: strict` in the comparisons option.

If networks_cli_compatible is set to `false`, this will not remove the default network if networks is specified. This is different from the behavior of `docker run ...`. You need to explicitly use `networks: strict` in comparisons to enforce the removal of the default network (and all other networks not explicitly mentioned in networks) in that case.

aliases list / elements=string | List of aliases for this container in this network. These names can be used in the network to reach this container.
ipv4_address string | The container’s IPv4 address in this network.
ipv6_address string | The container’s IPv6 address in this network.
links list / elements=string | A list of containers to link to.
name string / required | The network’s name.

networks_cli_compatible

boolean

If networks_cli_compatible is set to `true` (default), this module will behave as `docker run --network` and will not add the default network if networks is specified. If networks is not specified, the default network will be attached.

When networks_cli_compatible is set to `false` and networks are provided to the module via the networks option, the module behaves differently than `docker run --network`: `docker run --network other` will create a container with network `other` attached, but the default network not attached. This module with networks: {name: other} will create a container with both `default` and `other` attached. If `networks: strict` or `*: strict` is set in comparisons, the `default` network will be removed afterwards.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true` ← (default)

oom_killer

boolean

Whether or not to disable OOM Killer for the container.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

oom_score_adj integer | An integer value containing the score given to the container in order to tune OOM killer preferences.

output_logs

boolean

If set to true, output of the container command will be printed.

Only effective when log_driver is set to `json-file`, `journald`, or `local`.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

paused

boolean

Use with the started state to pause running processes inside the container.

If container_default_behavior is set to `compatibility`, this option has a default of `false`.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

pid_mode string | Set the PID namespace mode for the container.
pids_limit integer | Set PIDs limit for the container. It accepts an integer value. Set `-1` for unlimited PIDs.

platform

string

added in community.docker 3.0.0

Platform for the container in the format `os[/arch[/variant]]`.

Please note that inspecting the container does not always return the exact platform string used to create the container. This can cause idempotency to break for this module. Use the comparisons option with `platform: ignore` to prevent accidental recreation of the container due to this.

privileged

boolean

Give extended privileges to the container.

If container_default_behavior is set to `compatibility`, this option has a default of `false`.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

publish_all_ports

boolean

added in community.docker 1.8.0

Publish all ports to the host.

Any specified port bindings from published_ports will remain intact when `true`.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

published_ports

aliases: ports

list / elements=string

List of ports to publish from the container to the host.

Use docker CLI syntax: `8000`, `9000:8000`, or `0.0.0.0:9000:8000`, where 8000 is a container port, 9000 is a host port, and 0.0.0.0 is a host interface.

Port ranges can be used for source and destination ports. If two ranges with different lengths are specified, the shorter range will be used. Since community.general 0.2.0, if the source port range has length 1, the port will not be assigned to the first port of the destination range, but to a free port in that range. This is the same behavior as for `docker` command line utility.

Bind addresses must be either IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. Hostnames are not allowed. This is different from the `docker` command line utility. Use the dig lookup to resolve hostnames.

If networks parameter is provided, will inspect each network to see if there exists a bridge network with optional parameter `com.docker.network.bridge.host_binding_ipv4`. If such a network is found, then published ports where no host IP address is specified will be bound to the host IP pointed to by `com.docker.network.bridge.host_binding_ipv4`. Note that the first bridge network with a `com.docker.network.bridge.host_binding_ipv4` value encountered in the list of networks is the one that will be used.

The value `all` was allowed in earlier versions of this module. Support for it was removed in community.docker 3.0.0. Use the publish_all_ports option instead.

pull

boolean

If true, always pull the latest version of an image. Otherwise, will only pull an image when missing.

Note: images are only pulled when specified by name. If the image is specified as a image ID (hash), it cannot be pulled.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

purge_networks

boolean

Remove the container from ALL networks not included in networks parameter.

Any default networks such as `bridge`, if not found in networks, will be removed as well.

This option is deprecated since community.docker 3.2.0 and will be removed in community.docker 4.0.0. Use `networks: strict` in comparisons instead of purge_networks=true and make sure that networks is specified. If you want to remove all networks, specify networks: [].

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

read_only

boolean

Mount the container’s root file system as read-only.

If container_default_behavior is set to `compatibility`, this option has a default of `false`.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

recreate

boolean

Use with present and started states to force the re-creation of an existing container.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

removal_wait_timeout

float

When removing an existing container, the docker daemon API call exists after the container is scheduled for removal. Removal usually is very fast, but it can happen that during high I/O load, removal can take longer. By default, the module will wait until the container has been removed before trying to (re-)create it, however long this takes.

By setting this option, the module will wait at most this many seconds for the container to be removed. If the container is still in the removal phase after this many seconds, the module will fail.

restart

boolean

Use with started state to force a matching container to be stopped and restarted.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

restart_policy

string

Container restart policy.

Place quotes around `no` option.

Choices:

- `"no"`

- `"on-failure"`

- `"always"`

- `"unless-stopped"`

restart_retries integer | Use with restart policy to control maximum number of restart attempts.
runtime string | Runtime to use for the container.
security_opts list / elements=string | List of security options in the form of `"label:user:User"`.
shm_size string | Size of `/dev/shm` in format `<number>[<unit>]`. Number is positive integer. Unit can be `B` (byte), `K` (kibibyte, 1024B), `M` (mebibyte), `G` (gibibyte), `T` (tebibyte), or `P` (pebibyte). Omitting the unit defaults to bytes. If you omit the size entirely, Docker daemon uses `64M`.
ssl_version string | Provide a valid SSL version number. Default value determined by ssl.py module. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_SSL_VERSION` will be used instead.

state

string

`absent` - A container matching the specified name will be stopped and removed. Use force_kill to kill the container rather than stopping it. Use keep_volumes to retain anonymous volumes associated with the removed container.

`present` - Asserts the existence of a container matching the name and any provided configuration parameters. If no container matches the name, a container will be created. If a container matches the name but the provided configuration does not match, the container will be updated, if it can be. If it cannot be updated, it will be removed and re-created with the requested config.

`started` - Asserts that the container is first `present`, and then if the container is not running moves it to a running state. Use restart to force a matching container to be stopped and restarted.

`stopped` - Asserts that the container is first `present`, and then if the container is running moves it to a stopped state.

To control what will be taken into account when comparing configuration, see the comparisons option. To avoid that the image version will be taken into account, you can also use the `image: ignore` in the comparisons option.

Use the recreate option to always force re-creation of a matching container, even if it is running.

If the container should be killed instead of stopped in case it needs to be stopped for recreation, or because state is `stopped`, please use the force_kill option. Use keep_volumes to retain anonymous volumes associated with a removed container.

Use keep_volumes to retain anonymous volumes associated with a removed container.

Choices:

- `"absent"`

- `"present"`

- `"stopped"`

- `"started"` ← (default)

stop_signal string | Override default signal used to stop the container.

stop_timeout

integer

Number of seconds to wait for the container to stop before sending `SIGKILL`. When the container is created by this module, its `StopTimeout` configuration will be set to this value.

When the container is stopped, will be used as a timeout for stopping the container. In case the container has a custom `StopTimeout` configuration, the behavior depends on the version of the docker daemon. New versions of the docker daemon will always use the container’s configured `StopTimeout` value if it has been configured.

storage_opts dictionary added in community.docker 1.3.0 | Storage driver options for this container as a key-value mapping.
sysctls dictionary | Dictionary of key,value pairs.
timeout integer | The maximum amount of time in seconds to wait on a response from the API. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_TIMEOUT` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used. Default: `60`

tls

boolean

Secure the connection to the API by using TLS without verifying the authenticity of the Docker host server. Note that if validate_certs is set to `true` as well, it will take precedence.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_TLS` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

tls_hostname

string

When verifying the authenticity of the Docker Host server, provide the expected name of the server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_TLS_HOSTNAME` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used.

Note that this option had a default value `localhost` in older versions. It was removed in community.docker 3.0.0.

tmpfs list / elements=string | Mount a tmpfs directory.

tty

boolean

Allocate a pseudo-TTY.

If container_default_behavior is set to `compatibility`, this option has a default of `false`.

Choices:

- `false`

- `true`

ulimits list / elements=string | List of ulimit options. A ulimit is specified as `nofile:262144:262144`.

use_ssh_client

boolean

added in community.docker 1.5.0

For SSH transports, use the `ssh` CLI tool instead of paramiko.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

user string | Sets the username or UID used and optionally the groupname or GID for the specified command. Can be of the forms `user`, `user:group`, `uid`, `uid:gid`, `user:gid` or `uid:group`.
userns_mode string | Set the user namespace mode for the container. Currently, the only valid value are `host` and the empty string.
uts string | Set the UTS namespace mode for the container.

validate_certs

aliases: tls_verify

boolean

Secure the connection to the API by using TLS and verifying the authenticity of the Docker host server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY` will be used instead. If the environment variable is not set, the default value will be used.

Choices:

- `false` ← (default)

- `true`

volume_driver string | The container volume driver.

volumes

list / elements=string

List of volumes to mount within the container.

Use docker CLI-style syntax: `/host:/container[:mode]`

Mount modes can be a comma-separated list of various modes such as `ro`, `rw`, `consistent`, `delegated`, `cached`, `rprivate`, `private`, `rshared`, `shared`, `rslave`, `slave`, and `nocopy`. Note that the docker daemon might not support all modes and combinations of such modes.

SELinux hosts can additionally use `z` or `Z` to use a shared or private label for the volume.

Note that Ansible 2.7 and earlier only supported one mode, which had to be one of `ro`, `rw`, `z`, and `Z`.

volumes_from list / elements=string | List of container names or IDs to get volumes from.
working_dir string | Path to the working directory.

## Attributes

Attribute | Support | Description
--- | --- | ---
action_group | Action groups: community.docker.docker, docker | Use `group/docker` or `group/community.docker.docker` in `module_defaults` to set defaults for this module.
check_mode | Support: partial When trying to pull an image, the module assumes this is always changed in check mode. | Can run in `check_mode` and return changed status prediction without modifying target.
diff_mode | Support: full | Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in `check_mode`), when in diff mode.

## Notes

Note

- For most config changes, the container needs to be recreated. This means that the existing container has to be destroyed and a new one created. This can cause unexpected data loss and downtime. You can use the comparisons option to prevent this.

- If the module needs to recreate the container, it will only use the options provided to the module to create the new container (except image). Therefore, always specify all options relevant to the container.

- When restart is set to `true`, the module will only restart the container if no config changes are detected.

- Connect to the Docker daemon by providing parameters with each task or by defining environment variables. You can define `DOCKER_HOST`, `DOCKER_TLS_HOSTNAME`, `DOCKER_API_VERSION`, `DOCKER_CERT_PATH`, `DOCKER_SSL_VERSION`, `DOCKER_TLS`, `DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY` and `DOCKER_TIMEOUT`. If you are using docker machine, run the script shipped with the product that sets up the environment. It will set these variables for you. See https://docs.docker.com/machine/reference/env/ for more details.

- This module does not use the Docker SDK for Python to communicate with the Docker daemon. It uses code derived from the Docker SDK or Python that is included in this collection.

## Examples

    - name: Create a data container
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: mydata
        image: busybox
        volumes:
          - /data

    - name: Re-create a redis container
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: myredis
        image: redis
        command: redis-server --appendonly yes
        state: present
        recreate: true
        exposed_ports:
          - 6379
        volumes_from:
          - mydata

    - name: Restart a container
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: myapplication
        image: someuser/appimage
        state: started
        restart: true
        links:
         - "myredis:aliasedredis"
        devices:
         - "/dev/sda:/dev/xvda:rwm"
        ports:
         # Publish container port 9000 as host port 8080
         - "8080:9000"
         # Publish container UDP port 9001 as host port 8081 on interface 127.0.0.1
         - "127.0.0.1:8081:9001/udp"
         # Publish container port 9002 as a random host port
         - "9002"
         # Publish container port 9003 as a free host port in range 8000-8100
         # (the host port will be selected by the Docker daemon)
         - "8000-8100:9003"
         # Publish container ports 9010-9020 to host ports 7000-7010
         - "7000-7010:9010-9020"
        env:
            SECRET_KEY: "ssssh"
            # Values which might be parsed as numbers, booleans or other types by the YAML parser need to be quoted
            BOOLEAN_KEY: "yes"

    - name: Container present
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: mycontainer
        state: present
        image: ubuntu:14.04
        command: sleep infinity

    - name: Stop a container
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: mycontainer
        state: stopped

    - name: Start 4 load-balanced containers
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: "container{{ item }}"
        recreate: true
        image: someuser/anotherappimage
        command: sleep 1d
      with_sequence: count=4

    - name: Remove container
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: ohno
        state: absent

    - name: Syslogging output
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: myservice
        image: busybox
        log_driver: syslog
        log_options:
          syslog-address: tcp://my-syslog-server:514
          syslog-facility: daemon
          # NOTE: in Docker 1.13+ the "syslog-tag" option was renamed to "tag" for
          # older docker installs, use "syslog-tag" instead
          tag: myservice

    - name: Create db container and connect to network
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: db_test
        image: "postgres:latest"
        networks:
          - name: "{{ docker_network_name }}"

    - name: Start container, connect to network and link
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: sleeper
        image: ubuntu:14.04
        networks:
          - name: TestingNet
            ipv4_address: "172.16.1.100"
            aliases:
              - sleepyzz
            links:
              - db_test:db
          - name: TestingNet2

    - name: Start a container with a command
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: sleepy
        image: ubuntu:14.04
        command: ["sleep", "infinity"]

    - name: Add container to networks
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: sleepy
        networks:
          - name: TestingNet
            ipv4_address: 172.16.1.18
            links:
              - sleeper
          - name: TestingNet2
            ipv4_address: 172.16.10.20

    - name: Update network with aliases
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: sleepy
        networks:
          - name: TestingNet
            aliases:
              - sleepyz
              - zzzz

    - name: Remove container from one network
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: sleepy
        networks:
          - name: TestingNet2
        comparisons:
          networks: strict

    - name: Remove container from all networks
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: sleepy
        comparisons:
          networks: strict

    - name: Start a container and use an env file
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: agent
        image: jenkinsci/ssh-slave
        env_file: /var/tmp/jenkins/agent.env

    - name: Create a container with limited capabilities
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: sleepy
        image: ubuntu:16.04
        command: sleep infinity
        capabilities:
          - sys_time
        cap_drop:
          - all

    - name: Finer container restart/update control
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: test
        image: ubuntu:18.04
        env:
          arg1: "true"
          arg2: "whatever"
        volumes:
          - /tmp:/tmp
        comparisons:
          image: ignore   # do not restart containers with older versions of the image
          env: strict   # we want precisely this environment
          volumes: allow_more_present   # if there are more volumes, that's ok, as long as `/tmp:/tmp` is there

    - name: Finer container restart/update control II
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: test
        image: ubuntu:18.04
        env:
          arg1: "true"
          arg2: "whatever"
        comparisons:
          '*': ignore  # by default, ignore *all* options (including image)
          env: strict   # except for environment variables; there, we want to be strict

    - name: Start container with healthstatus
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: nginx-proxy
        image: nginx:1.13
        state: started
        healthcheck:
          # Check if nginx server is healthy by curl'ing the server.
          # If this fails or timeouts, the healthcheck fails.
          test: ["CMD", "curl", "--fail", "http://nginx.host.com"]
          interval: 1m30s
          timeout: 10s
          retries: 3
          start_period: 30s

    - name: Remove healthcheck from container
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: nginx-proxy
        image: nginx:1.13
        state: started
        healthcheck:
          # The "NONE" check needs to be specified
          test: ["NONE"]

    - name: Create a tmpfs with a size and mode
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: tmpfs test
        image: ubuntu:22.04
        state: started
        mounts:
          - type: tmpfs
            target: /cache
            tmpfs_mode: "1700" # only readable to the owner
            tmpfs_size: "16G"

    - name: Start container with block device read limit
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: test
        image: ubuntu:18.04
        state: started
        device_read_bps:
          # Limit read rate for /dev/sda to 20 mebibytes per second
          - path: /dev/sda
            rate: 20M
        device_read_iops:
          # Limit read rate for /dev/sdb to 300 IO per second
          - path: /dev/sdb
            rate: 300

    - name: Start container with GPUs
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: test
        image: ubuntu:18.04
        state: started
        device_requests:
          - # Add some specific devices to this container
            device_ids:
              - '0'
              - 'GPU-3a23c669-1f69-c64e-cf85-44e9b07e7a2a'
          - # Add nVidia GPUs to this container
            driver: nvidia
            count: -1  # this means we want all
            capabilities:
              # We have one OR condition: 'gpu' AND 'utility'
              - - gpu
                - utility
              # See https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-container-runtime#supported-driver-capabilities
              # for a list of capabilities supported by the nvidia driver

    - name: Start container with storage options
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: test
        image: ubuntu:18.04
        state: started
        storage_opts:
          # Limit root filesystem to 12 MB - note that this requires special storage backends
          # (https://fabianlee.org/2020/01/15/docker-use-overlay2-with-an-xfs-backing-filesystem-to-limit-rootfs-size/)
          size: 12m

## Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key | Description
--- | ---

container

dictionary

Facts representing the current state of the container. Matches the docker inspection output.

Empty if state is `absent`.

If detach=false, will include `Output` attribute containing any output from container run.

Returned: success; or when state=started and detach=false, and when waiting for the container result did not fail

Sample: `"{ \"AppArmorProfile\": \"\", \"Args\": [], \"Config\": { \"AttachStderr\": false, \"AttachStdin\": false, \"AttachStdout\": false, \"Cmd\": [ \"/usr/bin/supervisord\" ], \"Domainname\": \"\", \"Entrypoint\": null, \"Env\": [ \"PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin\" ], \"ExposedPorts\": { \"443/tcp\": {}, \"80/tcp\": {} }, \"Hostname\": \"8e47bf643eb9\", \"Image\": \"lnmp_nginx:v1\", \"Labels\": {}, \"OnBuild\": null, \"OpenStdin\": false, \"StdinOnce\": false, \"Tty\": false, \"User\": \"\", \"Volumes\": { \"/tmp/lnmp/nginx-sites/logs/\": {} }, ... }"`

status integer | In case a container is started without detaching, this contains the exit code of the process in the container. Before community.docker 1.1.0, this was only returned when non-zero. Returned: when state=started and detach=false, and when waiting for the container result did not fail Sample: `0`

### Authors

- Cove Schneider (@cove)

- Joshua Conner (@joshuaconner)

- Pavel Antonov (@softzilla)

- Thomas Steinbach (@ThomasSteinbach)

- Philippe Jandot (@zfil)

- Daan Oosterveld (@dusdanig)

- Chris Houseknecht (@chouseknecht)

- Kassian Sun (@kassiansun)

- Felix Fontein (@felixfontein)

### Collection links

Issue Tracker Repository (Sources) Submit a bug report Request a feature Communication