Allow links to specified as (name, alias) tuples

README.md

@@ -206,6 +206,11 @@ container ports to the host. See "Port bindings" below for more
 information. `lxc_conf` allows to pass LXC configuration options using a
 dictionary. `privileged` starts the container in privileged mode.
 
+[Links](http://docs.docker.io/en/latest/use/working_with_links_names/)
+can be specified with the `links` argument. They can either be
+specified as a dictionary mapping name to alias or as a list of
+`(name, alias)` tuples.
+
 ```python
 c.stop(container, timeout=10)
 ```

docker/client.py

@@ -705,8 +705,11 @@ class Client(requests.Session):
         start_config['PublishAllPorts'] = publish_all_ports
 
         if links:
+            if isinstance(links, dict):
+                links = six.iteritems(links)
+
             formatted_links = [
-                '{0}:{1}'.format(k, v) for k, v in sorted(six.iteritems(links))
+                '{0}:{1}'.format(k, v) for k, v in sorted(links)
             ]
 
             start_config['Links'] = formatted_links

tests/test.py

@@ -525,6 +525,31 @@ class DockerClientTest(unittest.TestCase):
             {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
         )
 
+    def test_start_container_with_links_as_list_of_tuples(self):
+        # one link
+        try:
+            link_path = 'path'
+            alias = 'alias'
+            self.client.start(fake_api.FAKE_CONTAINER_ID,
+                              links=[(link_path, alias)])
+        except Exception as e:
+            self.fail('Command should not raise exception: {0}'.format(e))
+
+        args = fake_request.call_args
+        self.assertEqual(
+            args[0][0],
+            'unix://var/run/docker.sock/v1.6/containers/3cc2351ab11b/start'
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(
+            json.loads(args[1]['data']),
+            {"PublishAllPorts": False, "Privileged": False,
+             "Links": ["path:alias"]}
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(
+            args[1]['headers'],
+            {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
+        )
+
     def test_start_container_privileged(self):
         try:
             self.client.start(fake_api.FAKE_CONTAINER_ID, privileged=True)