Ubuntu 22.04: install Docker

In this tutorial, I will show you a script to install Docker and Docker Compose on Ubuntu 22.04.

Today more and more applications are available in containers with Docker, I regularly have to install a new machine on Ubuntu and have to install Docker and Docker Compose.

Personally, I prefer to install Docker from the official repositories rather than what Ubuntu offers to have a more recent version.

At the beginning, I would go to the Docker site each time and copy/paste lines of code onto the site, which is quite tedious.

Install Docker and Docker Compose with a script

To save time, I decided on a bash script which takes over the commands and here it is:

#!/bin/bash
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

sudo apt-get update -qq
sudo apt-get upgrade -yqq

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get install -yqq ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)" signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  "$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")" stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update -qq

sudo apt-get install -yqq docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

To use the script, copy its contents to a file on your server with the .sh extension then run the

sudo sh script-file-name.sh

The script also works with Ubuntu 20.04

Verify that Docker is installed

To check that the installation is working properly you can enter these commands to have the versions of the Docker components.

docker --version

For Docker Compose

docker compose version

Lists of available Docker commands

Docker

To access Docker commands, enter the following command:

docker

Which returns:

Usage:  docker [OPTIONS] COMMAND

A self-sufficient runtime for containers

Common Commands:
  run         Create and run a new container from an image
  exec        Execute a command in a running container
  ps          List containers
  build       Build an image from a Dockerfile
  pull        Download an image from a registry
  push        Upload an image to a registry
  images      List images
  login       Log in to a registry
  logout      Log out from a registry
  search      Search Docker Hub for images
  version     Show the Docker version information
  info        Display system-wide information

Management Commands:
  builder     Manage builds
  buildx*     Docker Buildx (Docker Inc., v0.11.2)
  checkpoint  Manage checkpoints
  compose*    Docker Compose (Docker Inc., v2.21.0)
  container   Manage containers
  context     Manage contexts
  image       Manage images
  manifest    Manage Docker image manifests and manifest lists
  network     Manage networks
  plugin      Manage plugins
  system      Manage Docker
  trust       Manage trust on Docker images
  volume      Manage volumes

Swarm Commands:
  config      Manage Swarm configs
  node        Manage Swarm nodes
  secret      Manage Swarm secrets
  service     Manage Swarm services
  stack       Manage Swarm stacks
  swarm       Manage Swarm

Commands:
  attach      Attach local standard input, output, and error streams to a running container
  commit      Create a new image from a container's changes
  cp          Copy files/folders between a container and the local filesystem
  create      Create a new container
  diff        Inspect changes to files or directories on a container's filesystem
  events      Get real time events from the server
  export      Export a container's filesystem as a tar archive
  history     Show the history of an image
  import      Import the contents from a tarball to create a filesystem image
  inspect     Return low-level information on Docker objects
  kill        Kill one or more running containers
  load        Load an image from a tar archive or STDIN
  logs        Fetch the logs of a container
  pause       Pause all processes within one or more containers
  port        List port mappings or a specific mapping for the container
  rename      Rename a container
  restart     Restart one or more containers
  rm          Remove one or more containers
  rmi         Remove one or more images
  save        Save one or more images to a tar archive (streamed to STDOUT by default)
  start       Start one or more stopped containers
  stats       Display a live stream of container(s) resource usage statistics
  stop        Stop one or more running containers
  tag         Create a tag TARGET_IMAGE that refers to SOURCE_IMAGE
  top         Display the running processes of a container
  unpause     Unpause all processes within one or more containers
  update      Update configuration of one or more containers
  wait        Block until one or more containers stop, then print their exit codes

Global Options:
      --config string      Location of client config files (default "/home/ubuntu/.docker")
  -c, --context string     Name of the context to use to connect to the daemon (overrides DOCKER_HOST env var and default context set with "docker context use")
  -D, --debug              Enable debug mode
  -H, --host list          Daemon socket to connect to
  -l, --log-level string   Set the logging level ("debug", "info", "warn", "error", "fatal") (default "info")
      --tls                Use TLS; implied by --tlsverify
      --tlscacert string   Trust certs signed only by this CA (default "/home/ubuntu/.docker/ca.pem")
      --tlscert string     Path to TLS certificate file (default "/home/ubuntu/.docker/cert.pem")
      --tlskey string      Path to TLS key file (default "/home/ubuntu/.docker/key.pem")
      --tlsverify          Use TLS and verify the remote
  -v, --version            Print version information and quit

Run 'docker COMMAND --help' for more information on a command.

For more help on how to use Docker, head to https://docs.docker.com/go/guides/

Docker compose

For docker compose :

docker compose

Usage:  docker compose [OPTIONS] COMMAND

Define and run multi-container applications with Docker.

Options:
      --ansi string                Control when to print ANSI control characters ("never"|"always"|"auto") (default "auto")
      --compatibility              Run compose in backward compatibility mode
      --dry-run                    Execute command in dry run mode
      --env-file stringArray       Specify an alternate environment file.
  -f, --file stringArray           Compose configuration files
      --parallel int               Control max parallelism, -1 for unlimited (default -1)
      --profile stringArray        Specify a profile to enable
      --progress string            Set type of progress output (auto, tty, plain, quiet) (default "auto")
      --project-directory string   Specify an alternate working directory
                                   (default: the path of the, first specified, Compose file)
  -p, --project-name string        Project name

Commands:
  build       Build or rebuild services
  config      Parse, resolve and render compose file in canonical format
  cp          Copy files/folders between a service container and the local filesystem
  create      Creates containers for a service.
  down        Stop and remove containers, networks
  events      Receive real time events from containers.
  exec        Execute a command in a running container.
  images      List images used by the created containers
  kill        Force stop service containers.
  logs        View output from containers
  ls          List running compose projects
  pause       Pause services
  port        Print the public port for a port binding.
  ps          List containers
  pull        Pull service images
  push        Push service images
  restart     Restart service containers
  rm          Removes stopped service containers
  run         Run a one-off command on a service.
  start       Start services
  stop        Stop services
  top         Display the running processes
  unpause     Unpause services
  up          Create and start containers
  version     Show the Docker Compose version information
  wait        Block until the first service container stops

Run 'docker compose COMMAND --help' for more information on a command.

Test Docker by running an image

To test that Docker is working correctly, you can run the hello-world image

sudo docker run hello-world

The image should return something like this:

Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from library/hello-world
719385e32844: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:c79d06dfdfd3d3eb04cafd0dc2bacab0992ebc243e083cabe208bac4dd7759e0
Status: Downloaded newer image for hello-world:latest

Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.

To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
 1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
 2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
    (amd64)
 3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
    executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
 4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
    to your terminal.

To try something more ambitious, you can run an Ubuntu container with:
 $ docker run -it ubuntu bash

Share images, automate workflows, and more with a free Docker ID:
 https://hub.docker.com/

For more examples and ideas, visit:
 https://docs.docker.com/get-started/

If you are new to Docker, you will find several tutorials on the site by clicking here and I recommend reading: Docker: installation and concrete use on Ubuntu.