---
description: The create command description and usage
keywords:
- docker, create, container
menu:
main:
parent: smn_cli
title: create
---
# create
Creates a new container.
```markdown
Usage: docker create [OPTIONS] IMAGE [COMMAND] [ARG...]
Create a new container
Options:
--add-host value Add a custom host-to-IP mapping (host:ip) (default [])
-a, --attach value Attach to STDIN, STDOUT or STDERR (default [])
--blkio-weight value Block IO (relative weight), between 10 and 1000
--blkio-weight-device value Block IO weight (relative device weight) (default [])
--cap-add value Add Linux capabilities (default [])
--cap-drop value Drop Linux capabilities (default [])
--cgroup-parent string Optional parent cgroup for the container
--cidfile string Write the container ID to the file
--cpu-percent int CPU percent (Windows only)
--cpu-period int Limit CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) period
--cpu-quota int Limit CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) quota
-c, --cpu-shares int CPU shares (relative weight)
--cpuset-cpus string CPUs in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1)
--cpuset-mems string MEMs in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1)
--device value Add a host device to the container (default [])
--device-read-bps value Limit read rate (bytes per second) from a device (default [])
--device-read-iops value Limit read rate (IO per second) from a device (default [])
--device-write-bps value Limit write rate (bytes per second) to a device (default [])
--device-write-iops value Limit write rate (IO per second) to a device (default [])
--disable-content-trust Skip image verification (default true)
--dns value Set custom DNS servers (default [])
--dns-opt value Set DNS options (default [])
--dns-search value Set custom DNS search domains (default [])
--entrypoint string Overwrite the default ENTRYPOINT of the image
-e, --env value Set environment variables (default [])
--env-file value Read in a file of environment variables (default [])
--expose value Expose a port or a range of ports (default [])
--group-add value Add additional groups to join (default [])
--health-cmd string Command to run to check health
--health-interval duration Time between running the check
--health-retries int Consecutive failures needed to report unhealthy
--health-timeout duration Maximum time to allow one check to run
--help Print usage
-h, --hostname string Container host name
-i, --interactive Keep STDIN open even if not attached
--io-maxbandwidth string Maximum IO bandwidth limit for the system drive (Windows only)
--io-maxiops uint Maximum IOps limit for the system drive (Windows only)
--ip string Container IPv4 address (e.g. 172.30.100.104)
--ip6 string Container IPv6 address (e.g. 2001:db8::33)
--ipc string IPC namespace to use
--isolation string Container isolation technology
--kernel-memory string Kernel memory limit
-l, --label value Set meta data on a container (default [])
--label-file value Read in a line delimited file of labels (default [])
--link value Add link to another container (default [])
--link-local-ip value Container IPv4/IPv6 link-local addresses (default [])
--log-driver string Logging driver for the container
--log-opt value Log driver options (default [])
--mac-address string Container MAC address (e.g. 92:d0:c6:0a:29:33)
-m, --memory string Memory limit
--memory-reservation string Memory soft limit
--memory-swap string Swap limit equal to memory plus swap: '-1' to enable unlimited swap
--memory-swappiness int Tune container memory swappiness (0 to 100) (default -1)
--name string Assign a name to the container
--network-alias value Add network-scoped alias for the container (default [])
--network string Connect a container to a network (default "default")
'bridge': create a network stack on the default Docker bridge
'none': no networking
'container:<name|id>': reuse another container's network stack
'host': use the Docker host network stack
'<network-name>|<network-id>': connect to a user-defined network
--no-healthcheck Disable any container-specified HEALTHCHECK
--oom-kill-disable Disable OOM Killer
--oom-score-adj int Tune host's OOM preferences (-1000 to 1000)
--pid string PID namespace to use
--pids-limit int Tune container pids limit (set -1 for unlimited), kernel >= 4.3
--privileged Give extended privileges to this container
-p, --publish value Publish a container's port(s) to the host (default [])
-P, --publish-all Publish all exposed ports to random ports
--read-only Mount the container's root filesystem as read only
--restart string Restart policy to apply when a container exits (default "no")
Possible values are: no, on-failure[:max-retry], always, unless-stopped
--runtime string Runtime to use for this container
--security-opt value Security Options (default [])
--shm-size string Size of /dev/shm, default value is 64MB.
The format is `<number><unit>`. `number` must be greater than `0`.
Unit is optional and can be `b` (bytes), `k` (kilobytes), `m` (megabytes),
or `g` (gigabytes). If you omit the unit, the system uses bytes.
--stop-signal string Signal to stop a container, SIGTERM by default (default "SIGTERM")
--storage-opt value Storage driver options for the container (default [])
--sysctl value Sysctl options (default map[])
--tmpfs value Mount a tmpfs directory (default [])
-t, --tty Allocate a pseudo-TTY
--ulimit value Ulimit options (default [])
-u, --user string Username or UID (format: <name|uid>[:<group|gid>])
--userns string User namespace to use
'host': Use the Docker host user namespace
'': Use the Docker daemon user namespace specified by `--userns-remap` option.
--uts string UTS namespace to use
-v, --volume value Bind mount a volume (default []). The format
is `[host-src:]container-dest[:<options>]`.
The comma-delimited `options` are [rw|ro],
[z|Z], [[r]shared|[r]slave|[r]private], and
[nocopy]. The 'host-src' is an absolute path
or a name value.
--volume-driver string Optional volume driver for the container
--volumes-from value Mount volumes from the specified container(s) (default [])
-w, --workdir string Working directory inside the container
```
The `docker create` command creates a writeable container layer over the
specified image and prepares it for running the specified command. The
container ID is then printed to `STDOUT`. This is similar to `docker run -d`
except the container is never started. You can then use the
`docker start <container_id>` command to start the container at any point.
This is useful when you want to set up a container configuration ahead of time
so that it is ready to start when you need it. The initial status of the
new container is `created`.
Please see the [run command](run.md) section and the [Docker run reference](../run.md) for more details.
## Examples
$ docker create -t -i fedora bash
6d8af538ec541dd581ebc2a24153a28329acb5268abe5ef868c1f1a261221752
$ docker start -a -i 6d8af538ec5
bash-4.2#
As of v1.4.0 container volumes are initialized during the `docker create` phase
(i.e., `docker run` too). For example, this allows you to `create` the `data`
volume container, and then use it from another container:
$ docker create -v /data --name data ubuntu
240633dfbb98128fa77473d3d9018f6123b99c454b3251427ae190a7d951ad57
$ docker run --rm --volumes-from data ubuntu ls -la /data
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 5 04:10 .
drwxr-xr-x 48 root root 4096 Dec 5 04:11 ..
Similarly, `create` a host directory bind mounted volume container, which can
then be used from the subsequent container:
$ docker create -v /home/docker:/docker --name docker ubuntu
9aa88c08f319cd1e4515c3c46b0de7cc9aa75e878357b1e96f91e2c773029f03
$ docker run --rm --volumes-from docker ubuntu ls -la /docker
total 20
drwxr-sr-x 5 1000 staff 180 Dec 5 04:00 .
drwxr-xr-x 48 root root 4096 Dec 5 04:13 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 1000 staff 3833 Dec 5 04:01 .ash_history
-rw-r--r-- 1 1000 staff 446 Nov 28 11:51 .ashrc
-rw-r--r-- 1 1000 staff 25 Dec 5 04:00 .gitconfig
drwxr-sr-x 3 1000 staff 60 Dec 1 03:28 .local
-rw-r--r-- 1 1000 staff 920 Nov 28 11:51 .profile
drwx--S--- 2 1000 staff 460 Dec 5 00:51 .ssh
drwxr-xr-x 32 1000 staff 1140 Dec 5 04:01 docker
Set storage driver options per container.
$ docker create -it --storage-opt size=120G fedora /bin/bash
This (size) will allow to set the container rootfs size to 120G at creation time.
User cannot pass a size less than the Default BaseFS Size. This option is only
available for the `devicemapper`, `btrfs`, and `zfs` graph drivers.
### Specify isolation technology for container (--isolation)
This option is useful in situations where you are running Docker containers on
Windows. The `--isolation=<value>` option sets a container's isolation
technology. On Linux, the only supported is the `default` option which uses
Linux namespaces. On Microsoft Windows, you can specify these values:
| Value | Description |
|-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `default` | Use the value specified by the Docker daemon's `--exec-opt` . If the `daemon` does not specify an isolation technology, Microsoft Windows uses `process` as its default value if the
daemon is running on Windows server, or `hyperv` if running on Windows client. |
| `process` | Namespace isolation only. |
| `hyperv` | Hyper-V hypervisor partition-based isolation. |
Specifying the `--isolation` flag without a value is the same as setting `--isolation="default"`.