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Last active October 21, 2019 07:07
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Install Docker in Ubuntu 18.04

There are two versions of Docker – Docker CE (Community Edition) and Docker EE (Enterprise Edition). If you have a small-scale project, or you’re just learning, you’ll want to use Docker CE.

In this gist, we will cover how to install Docker on Ubuntu 18.04.

Prerequisites

  • Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit operating system
  • A user account with sudo privileges
  • Command line / terminal (CTRL-ALT-T or Applications menu > Accessories > Terminal)
  • Docker software repositories (optional)

Install Docker on Ubuntu Using Default Repositories

Step 1: Update Software Repositories As usual, it’s a good idea to update the local database of software to make sure you’ve got access to the latest revisions.

Therefore, open a terminal window and type:

sudo apt-get update

Allow the operation to complete.

Step 2: Uninstall Old Versions of Docker Next, it’s recommended to uninstall any old Docker software before proceeding.

Use the command:

sudo apt-get remove docker docker-engine docker.io

Step 3: Install Docker To install Docker on Ubuntu, in the terminal window enter the command:

sudo apt install docker.io

Step 4: Start and Automate Docker The Docker service needs to be setup to run at startup. To do so, type in each command followed by enter:

sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker

Step 5: Manage Docker as a non-root user If you don’t want to preface the docker command with sudo, create a Unix group called docker and add users to it. When the Docker daemon starts, it creates a Unix socket accessible by members of the docker group.

To create the docker group and add your user:

  • Create the docker group.
sudo groupadd docker
  • Add your user to the docker group.
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
  • Log out and log back in so that your group membership is re-evaluated.

If testing on a virtual machine, it may be necessary to restart the virtual machine for changes to take effect. On a desktop Linux environment such as X Windows, log out of your session completely and then log back in. On Linux, you can also run the following command to activate the changes to groups:

newgrp docker
  • Verify that you can run docker commands without sudo.
docker run hello-world

This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints an informational message and exits.

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