Docker Cookbook

4.8 Exploring the Docker Remote API to Automate Docker
Tasks
Problem
After being able to access the Docker daemon remotely (see 
Recipe 4.7
), you want to
explore the Docker remote API in order to write programs. This will allow you to
automate Docker tasks.
Solution
The Docker remote API is fully 
documented
. It is currently on version 1.21. It is a
REST API, in the sense that it manipulates resources (e.g., images and containers)
through HTTP calls using various HTTP methods (e.g., 
GET
, 
POST
, 
DELETE
). The
attach
and 
pull
APIs are not purely REST, as noted in the 
documentation
.
You already saw how to make the Docker daemon listen on a TCP socket (
Recipe 4.7
)
and use 
curl
to make API calls. Tables 
4-1
 and 
4-2
show a summary of the remote
API calls that are available.
Table 4-1. A sample of the API for container actions
Action on containers
HTTP method
URI
List containers
GET
/containers/json
Create container
POST
/containers/create
Inspect a container
GET
/containers/(id)/json
Start a container
POST
/containers/(id)/start
Stop a container
POST
/containers/(id)/stop
Restart a container
POST
/containers/(id)/restart
4.8 Exploring the Docker Remote API to Automate Docker Tasks | 119

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Action on containers
HTTP method
URI
Kill a container
POST
/containers/(id)/kill
Pause a container
POST
/containers/(id)/pause
Remove a container
DELETE
/containers/(id)
Table 4-2. A sample of the API for image actions