Container State Management in Docker
From the Docker cheat sheet · Container Management · verified Jul 2026
Container State Management
Control container lifecycle - start, stop, restart, and remove
bash
# List containers
docker ps # Running only
docker ps -a # All containers
docker ps -q # Only IDs
# Start/Stop/Restart
docker start container_name
docker stop container_name
docker restart container_name
# Remove containers
docker rm container_name
docker rm -f container_name # Force remove
# Clean up
docker container prune # Remove stopped💡 docker ps -a shows stopped containers too
⚠️ Use -f flag carefully to force remove
📌 Container prune removes all stopped containers
✅ Always stop before removing unless using -f