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Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu

To get started with Docker Engine on Ubuntu, ensure you meet the prerequisites and follow the installation steps.

Prerequisites

Firewall Limitations

Warning: Before installing Docker, consider the following security implications and firewall incompatibilities:

  • If you use ufw or firewalld to manage firewall settings, be aware that exposing container ports using Docker bypasses your firewall rules. For more information, refer to Docker and ufw.
  • Docker is only compatible with iptables-nft and iptables-legacy. Firewall rules created with nft are not supported. Ensure your firewall rulesets are created with iptables or ip6tables and added to the DOCKER-USER chain. See Packet filtering and firewalls.

OS Requirements

To install Docker Engine, you need the 64-bit version of one of these Ubuntu versions:

  • Ubuntu Oracular 24.10
  • Ubuntu Noble 24.04 (LTS)
  • Ubuntu Jammy 22.04 (LTS)
  • Ubuntu Focal 20.04 (LTS)

Docker Engine for Ubuntu is compatible with the following architectures: x86_64 (or amd64), armhf, arm64, s390x, and ppc64le (ppc64el).

Note: Installation on Ubuntu derivative distributions, such as Linux Mint, is not officially supported (though it may work).

Uninstall Old Versions

Before installing Docker Engine, uninstall any conflicting packages. Your Linux distribution may provide unofficial Docker packages that conflict with the official packages provided by Docker. Uninstall these packages before proceeding.

Unofficial Packages to Uninstall

  • docker.io
  • docker-compose
  • docker-compose-v2
  • docker-doc
  • podman-docker

Docker Engine depends on containerd and runc, which are bundled as containerd.io. If you have previously installed containerd or runc, uninstall them to avoid conflicts.

Run the following command to uninstall all conflicting packages:

for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose docker-compose-v2 podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove $pkg; done

Note: apt-get might report that none of these packages are installed.

Images, containers, volumes, and networks stored in /var/lib/docker/ aren't automatically removed when you uninstall Docker. To start with a clean installation, refer to the uninstall Docker Engine section.

Installation Methods

You can install Docker Engine in different ways, depending on your needs:

  1. Docker Desktop for Linux: Bundles Docker Engine and is the easiest way to get started.
  2. Using Docker's apt repository: Set up and install Docker Engine from Docker's repository.
  3. Manual installation: Download and install .deb packages manually.
  4. Convenience script: Recommended only for testing and development environments.

Install Using the apt Repository

Before installing Docker Engine for the first time on a new host machine, set up the Docker apt repository. Afterward, you can install and update Docker from the repository.

Set Up Docker's apt Repository

  1. Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
  1. Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

Install Docker Packages

To install the latest version of Docker Engine, run:

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

Verify the installation by running the hello-world image:

sudo docker run hello-world

This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints a confirmation message and exits.

Tip: If you encounter errors when trying to run Docker without sudo, refer to the Linux post-installation steps to allow non-privileged users to run Docker commands.

Upgrade Docker Engine

To upgrade Docker Engine, follow the installation instructions and choose the new version you want to install.

Install Using the Convenience Script

Docker provides a convenience script at https://get.docker.com/ to install Docker non-interactively. This script is useful for development environments but not recommended for production.

Example

Download and run the script:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh

Tip: Use the --dry-run option to preview the script steps before running it.

Uninstall Docker Engine

To uninstall Docker Engine, CLI, containerd, and Docker Compose packages, run:

sudo apt-get purge docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin docker-ce-rootless-extras

To delete all images, containers, and volumes:

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/containerd

Remove source list and keyrings:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list
sudo rm /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

You must manually delete any edited configuration files.

Next Steps

Continue to Post-installation steps for Linux.