19.2.2.2 Ps All Containers

The -a flag on docker ps extends the output to include all containers regardless of their current lifecycle state. Without this flag, only running containers are shown. With -a, the listing covers every container that exists in the Docker daemon's records — including stopped, exited, paused, created (but never started), and dead containers.

Basic Usage

docker ps -a

Example output on a busy development machine:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE             COMMAND              CREATED         STATUS                       PORTS                  NAMES
a1b2c3d4e5f6   nginx:latest      "/docker-entrypoint" 2 minutes ago   Up 2 minutes                 0.0.0.0:8080->80/tcp   web
b2c3d4e5f6a7   postgres:15       "docker-entrypoint…" 30 minutes ago  Up 30 minutes                5432/tcp               db
c3d4e5f6a7b8   myapp:1.0.0       "./run"              1 hour ago      Exited (0) 55 minutes ago                           app-test
d4e5f6a7b8c9   ubuntu:22.04      "bash"               2 hours ago     Exited (130) 2 hours ago                            dev-session
e5f6a7b8c9d0   myapp:0.9.0       "./run"              1 day ago       Exited (1) 23 hours ago                             app-failed
f6a7b8c9d0e1   python:3.12       "python3"            3 days ago      Created                                             unused-env

Container States Visible with -a

Why Exit Codes Matter

The exit code in the STATUS column reveals why a container stopped:

• (0) — The process completed normally.
• (1) — The application exited with an error (application-level failure).
• (2) — Misuse of shell built-ins.
• (126) — Command found but not executable.
• (127) — Command not found.
• (130) — Process killed by SIGINT (Ctrl+C).
• (137) — Process killed by SIGKILL, often from the OOM killer.
• (143) — Process killed by SIGTERM (graceful stop, e.g., docker stop).

Combining -a with log inspection reveals what a container did before it exited:

docker logs app-failed

Retrieving All Container IDs

docker ps -a -q

Returns only IDs, one per line — useful for scripting:

# Remove all stopped containers
docker rm $(docker ps -a -q -f "status=exited")

# Remove every container (running and stopped)
docker rm -f $(docker ps -a -q)

Filtering the All-Containers List

Filters can be combined with -a to narrow results:

Show only exited containers:

docker ps -a -f "status=exited"

Show containers that exited with a non-zero code (failures):

docker ps -a -f "status=exited" --format "{{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}"

Show the most recently created container regardless of state:

docker ps -a -l

Show the N most recently created containers:

docker ps -a -n 10

Cleaning Up with ps -a

A common maintenance pattern uses -a to find and remove stopped containers before reclaiming image disk space:

# See what stopped containers exist
docker ps -a -f "status=exited"

# Remove them all
docker container prune -f

Or equivalently:

docker rm $(docker ps -a -q -f "status=exited")

Removing stopped containers often unblocks image removal because docker rmi refuses to delete images that any container — even stopped ones — still references.

The Created State

A container in Created state was initialized with docker create but docker start was never called. These containers hold all their configuration but have never executed:

docker ps -a -f "status=created"

Created containers can be started at any time:

docker start unused-env

Or removed if no longer needed:

docker rm unused-env

Comparing ps vs ps -a

docker ps is the operational view (what is alive right now). docker ps -a is the complete inventory (everything that has been created and not yet removed).