Specify Container ID of docker process to attach - docker

Question

On my remote server, some developers run the same docker images named "my_account/analysis". So, once detached from the docker process, it is struggling to know which is my own process.
The result of docker ps is like this:
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
6968e76b3746 my_account/analysis "bash" 44 hours ago Up 44 hours 6023/tcp, 6073/tcp, 6800/tcp, 8118/tcp, 8888/tcp, 9050/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8887->8887/tcp modest_jones
42d970206a29 my_account/analysis "bash" 7 days ago Up 7 days 6023/tcp, 6073/tcp, 6800/tcp, 8118/tcp, 8888/tcp, 9050/tcp, 0.0.0.0:32771->8885/tcp gallant_chandrasekhar
ac9f804b7fe0 my_account/analysis "bash" 11 days ago Up 11 days 6023/tcp, 6073/tcp, 6800/tcp, 8118/tcp, 8888/tcp, 9050/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8798->8798/tcp suspicious_mayer
e8e260aab4fb my_account/analysis "bash" 12 days ago Up 12 days 6023/tcp, 6073/tcp, 6800/tcp, 8118/tcp, 8888/tcp, 9050/tcp, 0.0.0.0:32770->8885/tcp nostalgic_euler
In this case, because I remember that I ran docker around 2 days ago, I attach my container by docker attach 6968e. However, usually we forgot this.
What is the best practice to detect the container ID of mine under the situation that there are a lot of containers with the same Image name?

Answer 1

The simple way is to name the containers
docker run --name my-special-container my_account/analysis
docker attach my-special-container
You can store the container ID in a file when it launches
docker run --cidfile ~/my-special-container my_account/analysis
docker attach $(cat ~/my-special-container)
You can add more detailed metadata with object labels, but they are not as easily accessible as names
docker run --label com.rkjt50r983.tag=special my_account/analysis
docker ps --filter 'label=com.rkjt50r983.tag=special'