Tired of that awful super wide ‘docker ps’ output? Go vertical! Try docker-pretty-ps!

docker-pretty-ps (v.1.0.2)

Tired of that awful super wide docker ps output? I’m always shrinking my terminal output just to see what docker ps is trying saying… and it’s making me go blind. If you commiserate, try docker-pretty-ps! Just run docker-pretty-ps and get your output long, instead of wide and with COLORS!

Use docker-pretty-ps to get all running containers, stopped containers, search for containers. You can do all this in a beautiful, colored, long output with only the data you requested. Narrow your request with a search against containers with a name matching a search phrase; such as docker-pretty-ps webserver.

Why docker-pretty-ps though? (or TLDR)

• docker ps output is awful. Very wide output, yet not very helpful.
• docker-pretty-ps uses no 3rd party python packages, so it will run on any system that can run python, and Docker.
• You’re a Docker wizard and need just a little bit more.

Basic Example

Run docker-pretty-ps to get output of all currently running containers, or include an optional argument to search containers who’s name match a phrase. Need to collect containers with multiple different phrases? Just comma separate them, like so docker-pretty-ps web,mail

$ docker-pretty-ps web
Currently running containers with: web, mail
tradetrack_web_1
    Status:                 Up 5 days
    Created:                5 days ago
    Ports:                  80/tcp
                            0.0.0.0:5010->5010/tcp
    Container ID:           416948f10a42
    Image ID:               tradetrack_web
    Command:                "gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0…"

smpt-mail
    Container ID:         10d861029eae
    Image ID:             tvial/docker-mailserver:latest
    Command:              supervisord -c /etc…
    Created:              12 days ago
    Status:               Up 12 days
    Ports:                0.0.0.0:25->25/tcp
                          110/tcp
                          0.0.0.0:143->143/tcp
                          0.0.0.0:587->587/tcp
                          465/tcp
                          995/tcp
                          0.0.0.0:993->993/tcp
                          4190/tcp

Total containers:      14
Total running:         5
Containers in search:  2

Install

Over pip

pip install docker-pretty-ps

Build and install

git clone https://github.com/politeauthority/docker-pretty-ps.git
cd docker-pretty-ps
python3 setup.py build
python3 setup.py install

Then you should be able to run the command docker-pretty-ps any where on your system.

Other Example Usages

Example Slim Output –slim, (-s) Mode

Typical docker-prettty-ps too long for ya? Don’t fret! docker-pretty-ps has an answer to that. Use -s or --slim cli argument to get a slim output.

$ docker-pretty-ps -s
All currently running docker containers

nginx-proxy
some-postgres
carpetbag_carpetbag_1
badactorservices_bad-actor-services_1
badactorservices_bad-actor-services-data_1

Total containers:   21
Total running:      5

Example –slim (-s) Mode with Just a Pinch More Data –inlcude (-i)

Sure, thats nice to know all containers on a host, but you also need to know what ports and the creation date, (for example). Well then just the --include or -i cli arg.

Get current running containers with just the creation time and the port configuration. Use the command docker-pretty-ps -s -i=cp

$ docker-pretty-ps -s -i=cp
All currently running docker containers

carpetbag_carpetbag_1
    Created:              42 minutes ago
    Ports:

some-postgres
    Created:              5 months ago
    Ports:                10.138.44.203:5432->5432/tcp

nginx-proxy
    Created:              5 days ago
    Ports:                0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp
                          0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp

Total containers:   5
Total running:      3

The other –inlcude (-i) argument options

The -i argument allows a user to specify the columns they want to receive back.

$ docker-pretty-ps -i ns

This will return just the container ID and the container status, like the following.

All currently running docker containers

bad-actor-services_bad-actor-services-web_1
    Container ID:         85cc746f77a4
    Status:               Up 3 hours

Total containers:   14
Total running:      1

–include column namespaces

• n - Co(n)tainer ID
• i - Container (i)mage ID
• m - Container co(m)mand
• c - Container (c)reation Date
• s - Container (s)tatus
• p - Container (p)orts

Example all containers on system, on or off –all (-a)

Run docker-pretty-ps --all against all containers running or not on your system.

$ docker-pretty-ps -a
All docker containers

determined_goldstine
  Container ID:         51ab96c96896
  Image ID:             39e12b5ef620
  Command:              /bin/sh -c 'apk add…
  Created:              13 days ago
  Status:               Exited (1) 13 days ago
  State:                [OFF]
  Ports:

alpine-sshd
  Container ID:         23a8d9762781
  Image ID:             danielguerra/alpine-sshd
  Command:              docker-entrypoint.s…
  Created:              6 months ago
  Status:               Up 4 months
  State:                [ON]
  Ports:                0.0.0.0:4848->22/tcp

Total containers:   4
Total running:      2

Full CLI Usage

usage: docker-pretty-ps [-h] [-a] [-s] [-i INCLUDE] [-o [ORDER]] [-r] [-j]
                        [-v]
                        [search]

positional arguments:
  search                Phrase to search containers, comma separate multiple.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -a, --all             Selects against all rnning and stopped containers
  -s, --slim            Shows a slim minimal output.
  -i INCLUDE, --include INCLUDE
                        Data points to add to display, (c)reated, (p)orts,
                        (i)mage_id, co(m)mand
  -r, --reverse         Reverses the display order.
  -j, --json            Instead of printing, creates a json response of the
                        container data.
  -v, --version         Reverses the display order.

Future

• Crush dem bugs.
• Create more python native usage.
• More testing.