page_title: Linking Containers Together page_description: Learn how to connect Docker containers together. page_keywords: Examples, Usage, user guide, links, linking, docker, documentation, examples, names, name, container naming, port, map, network port, network # Linking Containers Together In [the Using Docker section](/userguide/usingdocker), you saw how you can connect to a service running inside a Docker container via a network port. But a port connection is only one way you can interact with services and applications running inside Docker containers. In this section, we'll briefly revisit connecting via a network port and then we'll introduce you to another method of access: container linking. ## Network port mapping refresher In [the Using Docker section](/userguide/usingdocker), you created a container that ran a Python Flask application: $ sudo docker run -d -P training/webapp python app.py > **Note:** > Containers have an internal network and an IP address > (as we saw when we used the `docker inspect` command to show the container's > IP address in the [Using Docker](/userguide/usingdocker/) section). > Docker can have a variety of network configurations. You can see more > information on Docker networking [here](/articles/networking/). When that container was created, the `-P` flag was used to automatically map any network ports inside it to a random high port from the range 49153 to 65535 on our Docker host. Next, when `docker ps` was run, you saw that port 5000 in the container was bound to port 49155 on the host. $ sudo docker ps nostalgic_morse CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES bc533791f3f5 training/webapp:latest python app.py 5 seconds ago Up 2 seconds 0.0.0.0:49155->5000/tcp nostalgic_morse You also saw how you can bind a container's ports to a specific port using the `-p` flag: $ sudo docker run -d -p 5000:5000 training/webapp python app.py And you saw why this isn't such a great idea because it constrains you to only one container on that specific port. There are also a few other ways you can configure the `-p` flag. By default the `-p` flag will bind the specified port to all interfaces on the host machine. But you can also specify a binding to a specific interface, for example only to the `localhost`. $ sudo docker run -d -p 127.0.0.1:5000:5000 training/webapp python app.py This would bind port 5000 inside the container to port 5000 on the `localhost` or `127.0.0.1` interface on the host machine. Or, to bind port 5000 of the container to a dynamic port but only on the `localhost`, you could use: $ sudo docker run -d -p 127.0.0.1::5000 training/webapp python app.py You can also bind UDP ports by adding a trailing `/udp`. For example: $ sudo docker run -d -p 127.0.0.1:5000:5000/udp training/webapp python app.py You also learned about the useful `docker port` shortcut which showed us the current port bindings. This is also useful for showing you specific port configurations. For example, if you've bound the container port to the `localhost` on the host machine, then the `docker port` output will reflect that. $ docker port nostalgic_morse 5000 127.0.0.1:49155 > **Note:** > The `-p` flag can be used multiple times to configure multiple ports. ## Docker Container Linking Network port mappings are not the only way Docker containers can connect to one another. Docker also has a linking system that allows you to link multiple containers together and send connection information from one to another. When containers are linked, information about a source container can be sent to a recipient container. This allows the recipient to see selected data describing aspects of the source container. ## Container naming To establish links, Docker relies on the names of your containers. You've already seen that each container you create has an automatically created name; indeed you've become familiar with our old friend `nostalgic_morse` during this guide. You can also name containers yourself. This naming provides two useful functions: 1. It can be useful to name containers that do specific functions in a way that makes it easier for you to remember them, for example naming a container containing a web application `web`. 2. It provides Docker with a reference point that allows it to refer to other containers, for example, you can specify to link the container `web` to container `db`. You can name your container by using the `--name` flag, for example: $ sudo docker run -d -P --name web training/webapp python app.py This launches a new container and uses the `--name` flag to name the container `web`. You can see the container's name using the `docker ps` command. $ sudo docker ps -l CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES aed84ee21bde training/webapp:latest python app.py 12 hours ago Up 2 seconds 0.0.0.0:49154->5000/tcp web You can also use `docker inspect` to return the container's name. $ sudo docker inspect -f "{{ .Name }}" aed84ee21bde /web > **Note:** > Container names have to be unique. That means you can only call > one container `web`. If you want to re-use a container name you must delete > the old container (with `docker rm`) before you can create a new > container with the same name. As an alternative you can use the `--rm` > flag with the `docker run` command. This will delete the container > immediately after it is stopped. ## Container Linking Links allow containers to discover each other and securely transfer information about one container to another container. When you set up a link, you create a conduit between a source container and a recipient container. The recipient can then access select data about the source. To create a link, you use the `--link` flag. First, create a new container, this time one containing a database. $ sudo docker run -d --name db training/postgres This creates a new container called `db` from the `training/postgres` image, which contains a PostgreSQL database. Now, you need to delete the `web` container you created previously so you can replace it with a linked one: $ docker rm -f web Now, create a new `web` container and link it with your `db` container. $ sudo docker run -d -P --name web --link db:db training/webapp python app.py This will link the new `web` container with the `db` container you created earlier. The `--link` flag takes the form: --link name:alias Where `name` is the name of the container we're linking to and `alias` is an alias for the link name. You'll see how that alias gets used shortly. Next, look at your linked containers using `docker ps`. $ docker ps CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 349169744e49 training/postgres:latest su postgres -c '/usr About a minute ago Up About a minute 5432/tcp db, web/db aed84ee21bde training/webapp:latest python app.py 16 hours ago Up 2 minutes 0.0.0.0:49154->5000/tcp web You can see your named containers, `db` and `web`, and you can see that the `db` container also shows `web/db` in the `NAMES` column. This tells you that the `web` container is linked to the `db` container, which allows it to access information about the `db` container. So what does linking the containers actually do? You've learned that a link creates a source container that can provide information about itself to a recipient container. In our example, the recipient, `web`, can access information about the source `db`. To do this, Docker creates a secure tunnel between the containers that doesn't need to expose any ports externally on the container; you'll note when we started the `db` container we did not use either the `-P` or `-p` flags. That's a big benefit of linking: we don't need to expose the source container, here the PostgreSQL database, to the network. Docker exposes connectivity information for the source container to the recipient container in two ways: * Environment variables, * Updating the `/etc/hosts` file. Docker can set a number of environment variables. You run the `env` command to list the specified container's environment variables. ``` $ sudo docker run --rm --name web2 --link db:db training/webapp env . . . DB_NAME=/web2/db DB_PORT=tcp://172.17.0.5:5432 DB_PORT_5000_TCP=tcp://172.17.0.5:5432 DB_PORT_5000_TCP_PROTO=tcp DB_PORT_5000_TCP_PORT=5432 DB_PORT_5000_TCP_ADDR=172.17.0.5 . . . ``` > **Note**: > These Environment variables are only set for the first process in the > container. Similarly, some daemons (such as `sshd`) > will scrub them when spawning shells for connection. You can see that Docker has created a series of environment variables with useful information about the source `db` container. Each variable is prefixed with `DB_`, which is populated from the `alias` you specified above. If the `alias` were `db1`, the variables would be prefixed with `DB1_`. You can use these environment variables to configure your applications to connect to the database on the `db` container. The connection will be secure and private; only the linked `web` container will be able to talk to the `db` container. In addition to the environment variables, Docker adds a host entry for the source container to the `/etc/hosts` file. Here's an entry for the `web` container: $ sudo docker run -t -i --rm --link db:db training/webapp /bin/bash root@aed84ee21bde:/opt/webapp# cat /etc/hosts 172.17.0.7 aed84ee21bde . . . 172.17.0.5 db You can see two relevant host entries. The first is an entry for the `web` container that uses the Container ID as a host name. The second entry uses the link alias to reference the IP address of the `db` container. You can ping that host now via this host name. root@aed84ee21bde:/opt/webapp# apt-get install -yqq inetutils-ping root@aed84ee21bde:/opt/webapp# ping db PING db (172.17.0.5): 48 data bytes 56 bytes from 172.17.0.5: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.267 ms 56 bytes from 172.17.0.5: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.250 ms 56 bytes from 172.17.0.5: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.256 ms > **Note:** > In the example, you'll note you had to install `ping` because it was not included > in the container initially. Here, you used the `ping` command to ping the `db` container using its host entry, which resolves to `172.17.0.5`. You can use this host entry to configure an application to make use of your `db` container. > **Note:** > You can link multiple recipient containers to a single source. For > example, you could have multiple (differently named) web containers attached to your >`db` container. If you restart the source container, the linked containers `/etc/hosts` files will be automatically updated with the source container's new IP address, allowing linked communication to continue. $ sudo docker restart db root@aed84ee21bde:/opt/webapp# cat /etc/hosts 172.17.0.7 aed84ee21bde . . . 172.17.0.9 db # Next step Now that you know how to link Docker containers together, the next step is learning how to manage data, volumes and mounts inside your containers. Go to [Managing Data in Containers](/userguide/dockervolumes).