page_title: Hello world example
page_description: A simple hello world example with Docker
page_keywords: docker, example, hello world
# Check your Docker installation
This guide assumes you have a working installation of Docker. To check
your Docker install, run the following command:
# Check that you have a working install
$ sudo docker info
If you get `docker: command not found` or something
like `/var/lib/docker/repositories: permission denied`
you may have an incomplete Docker installation or insufficient
privileges to access docker on your machine.
Please refer to [*Installation*](/installation/)
for installation instructions.
## Hello World
> **Note**:
>
> - This example assumes you have Docker running in daemon mode. For
> more information please see [*Check your Docker
> install*](#check-your-docker-installation).
> - **If you don't like sudo** then see [*Giving non-root
> access*](/installation/binaries/#dockergroup)
This is the most basic example available for using Docker.
Download the small base image named `busybox`:
# Download a busybox image
$ sudo docker pull busybox
The `busybox` image is a minimal Linux system. You can do the same with
any number of other images, such as `debian`, `ubuntu` or `centos`. The
images can be found and retrieved using the
[Docker.io](http://index.docker.io) registry.
$ sudo docker run busybox /bin/echo hello world
This command will run a simple `echo` command, that
will echo `hello world` back to the console over
standard out.
**Explanation:**
- **"sudo"** execute the following commands as user *root*
- **"docker run"** run a command in a new container
- **"busybox"** is the image we are running the command in.
- **"/bin/echo"** is the command we want to run in the container
- **"hello world"** is the input for the echo command
**Video:**
See the example in action
## Hello World Daemon
> **Note**:
>
> - This example assumes you have Docker running in daemon mode. For
> more information please see [*Check your Docker
> install*](#check-your-docker-installation).
> - **If you don't like sudo** then see [*Giving non-root
> access*](/installation/binaries/#dockergroup)
And now for the most boring daemon ever written!
We will use the Ubuntu image to run a simple hello world daemon that
will just print hello world to standard out every second. It will
continue to do this until we stop it.
**Steps:**
$ container_id=$(sudo docker run -d ubuntu /bin/sh -c "while true; do echo hello world; sleep 1; done")
We are going to run a simple hello world daemon in a new container made
from the `ubuntu` image.
- **"sudo docker run -d "** run a command in a new container. We pass
"-d" so it runs as a daemon.
- **"ubuntu"** is the image we want to run the command inside of.
- **"/bin/sh -c"** is the command we want to run in the container
- **"while true; do echo hello world; sleep 1; done"** is the mini
script we want to run, that will just print hello world once a
second until we stop it.
- **$container_id** the output of the run command will return a
container id, we can use in future commands to see what is going on
with this process.
$ sudo docker logs $container_id
Check the logs make sure it is working correctly.
- **"docker logs**" This will return the logs for a container
- **$container_id** The Id of the container we want the logs for.
$ sudo docker attach --sig-proxy=false $container_id
Attach to the container to see the results in real-time.
- **"docker attach**" This will allow us to attach to a background
process to see what is going on.
- **"–sig-proxy=false"** Do not forward signals to the container;
allows us to exit the attachment using Control-C without stopping
the container.
- **$container_id** The Id of the container we want to attach to.
Exit from the container attachment by pressing Control-C.
$ sudo docker ps
Check the process list to make sure it is running.
- **"docker ps"** this shows all running process managed by docker
$ sudo docker stop $container_id
Stop the container, since we don't need it anymore.
- **"docker stop"** This stops a container
- **$container_id** The Id of the container we want to stop.
$ sudo docker ps
Make sure it is really stopped.
**Video:**
See the example in action
The next example in the series is a [*Node.js Web App*](
../nodejs_web_app/#nodejs-web-app) example, or you could skip to any of the
other examples:
- [*Node.js Web App*](../nodejs_web_app/#nodejs-web-app)
- [*Redis Service*](../running_redis_service/#running-redis-service)
- [*SSH Daemon Service*](../running_ssh_service/#running-ssh-service)
- [*CouchDB Service*](../couchdb_data_volumes/#running-couchdb-service)
- [*PostgreSQL Service*](../postgresql_service/#postgresql-service)
- [*Building an Image with MongoDB*](../mongodb/#mongodb-image)
- [*Python Web App*](../python_web_app/#python-web-app)