In the previous chapter, we explained the stimulating and sustainable concepts that clearly articulated Docker's way of crafting futuristic and flexible application-aware containers. We discussed all the relevant details of bringing Docker containers into multiple environments (on-premise as well as off-premise). You can easily replicate these Docker capabilities in your own environments to get a rewarding experience. Now, the next logical step for us is to understand container life cycle aspects in a decisive manner. You are to learn the optimal utilization of your own containers as well as those of other third-party containers in an efficient and risk-free way. Containers are to be found, accessed, assessed, and leveraged toward bigger and better distributed applications.

In this chapter, we will dig deeper and describe the critical aspects of container handling at length. A number of practical tips and execution commands for leveraging containers will also be discussed for the benefit of readers.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Clarifying Docker terms
• Working with Docker images and containers
• The meaning of the Docker Registry and its repository
• The Docker Hub Registry
• Searching Docker images
• Working with an interactive container
• Tracking changes inside the containers
• Controlling and housekeeping Docker containers
• Building images from containers
• Launching a container as a daemon