Docker Tips n' Tricks - Bash Things With Docker

If you use Docker frequently, you’ve likely memorized a few repetitive commands…

docker-machine start XyZvirtualMachine

Then you run…

docker-machine env XyZvirtualMachine

…and then you type…

eval $(docker-machine env XyZvirtualMachine)

One does this about a zillion times if there are multiple virtual machines or for other various reasons. I wanted to simplify this repetitive task so I wrote a bash function, thanks to a fumble I posted on Stackoverflow and then an assist by my good friend Troy Howard (@thoward37).

This quick hack consisted of this Github gist.

gimmedocker() { if [ $1 ]; then
    docker-machine start $1
    docker-machine env $1
    eval $(docker-machine env $1)
    docker ps -a
fi }

Stick that in your ~/.bash_profile (or ~/.bashrc if you’re on *nix) and you’re good to go. Then at the bash prompt just type in this.

gimmedocker XyZvirtualMachine

BOOM! Less typing for the win!