Dockly -Swiss army knife for managing Docker containers without Kubernetes

These days more and more vendors embrace Docker containers as preferable way of software distribution.

In many cases you don’t need to deal with all the complexities that comes with Kubernetes orchestration.

Instead you just want to have a simple tool which provides a full control and visibility over what is going on in containers you have to manage.

 

Dockly is one such tool.

As names suggest, it is a tool for managing Docker containers from the confort of your terminal.

In a real-life scenario, I’ve found it very useful and simple to use, which is the main reason for writing an article about.

Instead of spending too much words on description, down below you can find the step-by-step installation guide equipped with couple of pictures that will give you some feeling about how it looks like.

 

1.

First you need to install Node.js JavaScript runtime nvm.

Use the latest install script from https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm

$ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.36.0/install.sh | bash

2.

Run the following command to view the list of available Nodejs versions:

test@localhost.localdomain:~>nvm list-remote 
v0.1.14
        v0.1.15
        v0.1.16
        v0.1.17
        v0.1.18
...

3.

To install/update to the most recent Node.js version, you just need to run:

test@localhost.localdomain:~>nvm install node
Computing checksum with sha256sum
Checksums matched!
npm notice 
npm notice New patch version of npm available! 7.5.1 -> 7.5.2
npm notice Changelog: https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v7.5.2
npm notice Run npm install -g npm@7.5.2 to update!
npm notice 
Now using node v15.8.0 (npm v7.5.1)
Creating default alias: default -> node (-> v15.8.0)

4.

To view the list of installed Nodejs versions, you can run:

test@localhost.localdomain:~>nvm list
->      v15.8.0
default -> node (-> v15.8.0)
node -> stable (-> v15.8.0) (default)
stable -> 15.8 (-> v15.8.0) (default)
iojs -> N/A (default)
unstable -> N/A (default)
lts/* -> lts/fermium (-> N/A)
lts/argon -> v4.9.1 (-> N/A)
lts/boron -> v6.17.1 (-> N/A)
lts/carbon -> v8.17.0 (-> N/A)
lts/dubnium -> v10.23.2 (-> N/A)
lts/erbium -> v12.20.1 (-> N/A)
lts/fermium -> v14.15.4 (-> N/A)

5.

Now you have fulfilled all the prerequisites to install Dockly:

test@localhost.localdomain:~>npm install -g dockly

added 167 packages, and audited 168 packages in 19s

6 packages are looking for funding
  run `npm fund` for details

found 0 vulnerabilities
npm notice 
npm notice New patch version of npm available! 7.5.1 -> 7.5.2
npm notice Changelog: https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v7.5.2
npm notice Run npm install -g npm@7.5.2 to update!
npm notice 

 

Optionally you can run the last command to patch the npm:

npm install -g npm@7.5.2

 

On the following picture you can see how it look likes when you start Dockly (just type dockly in a terminal).

 

On the next picture you can see the list of options available to you for managing Docker containers:

 

Help screen is shown on the next picture:

 

On the final picture you can see some info about selected container:

 

Summary:

Dockly is a great, simple tool that do its job efficiently, and I’m using it all the time, since in most cases Kubernetes is overkill.

If you try it, you’ll probably ask yourself how can you live without it.

 

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