Get Docker for Fedora

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

To get started with Docker on Fedora, make sure you meet the prerequisites, then install Docker.

Prerequisites

Docker EE customers

Docker EE is not supported on Fedora. For a list of supported operating systems and distributions for different Docker editions, see Docker variants.

OS requirements

To install Docker, you need the 64-bit version of one of these Fedora versions:

Uninstall old versions

Older versions of Docker were called docker or docker-engine. If these are installed, uninstall them, along with associated dependencies.

$ sudo dnf remove docker \
                  docker-common \
                  container-selinux \
                  docker-selinux \
                  docker-engine

It’s OK if dnf reports that none of these packages are installed.

The contents of /var/lib/docker/, including images, containers, volumes, and networks, are preserved. The Docker CE package is now called docker-ce.

Install Docker CE

You can install Docker CE in different ways, depending on your needs:

Most users set up Docker’s repositories and install from them, for ease of installation and upgrade tasks. This is the recommended approach.
Some users download the RPM package and install it manually and manage upgrades completely manually. This is useful in situations such as installing Docker on air-gapped systems with no access to the internet.

Install using the repository

Before you install Docker for the first time on a new host machine, you need to set up the Docker repository. Afterward, you can install and update Docker from the repository.

Set up the repository

Install the dnf-plugins-core package which provides the commands to manage your DNF repositories from the command line.
```
$ sudo dnf -y install dnf-plugins-core
```
Use the following command to set up the stable repository. You always need the stable repository, even if you want to install edge builds as well
```
$ sudo dnf config-manager \
    --add-repo \
    https://download.docker.com/linux/fedora/docker-ce.repo
```
Optional: Enable the edge repository. This repository is included in the docker.repo file above but is disabled by default. You can enable it alongside the stable repository.
```
$ sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled docker-ce-edge
```
You can disable the edge repository by running the dnf config-manager command with the --disable flag. To re-enable it, use the --enable flag. The following command disables the edge repository.
```
$ sudo dnf config-manager --set-disabled docker-ce-edge
```
Learn about stable and edge channels.

Install Docker CE

Update the dnf package index.
```
$ sudo dnf makecache fast
```
If this is the first time you have refreshed the package index since adding the Docker repositories, you will be prompted to accept the GPG key, and the key’s fingerprint will be shown. Verify that the fingerprint matches 060A 61C5 1B55 8A7F 742B 77AA C52F EB6B 621E 9F35 and if so, accept the key.
Install the latest version of Docker, or go to the next step to install a specific version.
```
$ sudo dnf install docker-ce
```
Warning: If you have multiple Docker repositories enabled, installing or updating without specifying a version in the dnf install or dnf update command will always install the highest possible version, which may not be appropriate for your stability needs.
On production systems, you should install a specific version of Docker instead of always using the latest. List the available versions. This example uses the sort -r command to sort the results by version number, highest to lowest, and is truncated.
Note: This dnf list command only shows binary packages. To show source packages as well, omit the .x86_64 from the package name.
```
$ dnf list docker-ce.x86_64  --showduplicates |sort -r

docker-ce.x86_64  17.03.0.fc24                               docker-ce-stable  
```
The contents of the list depend upon which repositories are enabled, and will be specific to your version of Fedora (indicated by the .fc24 suffix on the version, in this example). Choose a specific version to install. The second column is the version string. The third column is the repository name, which indicates which repository the package is from and by extension its stability level. To install a specific version, append the version string to the package name and separate them by a hyphen (-):
```
$ sudo dnf -y install docker-ce-<VERSION>
```
Start Docker.
```
$ sudo systemctl start docker
```
Verify that Docker CE is installed correctly by running the hello-world image.
```
$ sudo docker run hello-world
```
This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints an informational message and exits.

Docker is installed and running. You need to use sudo to run Docker commands. Continue to Linux postinstall to allow non-privileged users to run Docker commands and for other optional configuration steps.

Upgrade Docker CE

To upgrade Docker, first run sudo dnf makecache fast, then follow the installation instructions, choosing the new version you want to install.

Install from a package

If you cannot use Docker’s repository to install Docker, you can download the .rpm file for your release and install it manually. You will need to download a new file each time you want to upgrade Docker.

Go to https://download.docker.com/linux/fedora/ and choose your version of Fedora. Go to x86_64/stable/Packages/ and download the .rpm file for the Docker version you want to install.
Note: To install an edge package, change the word stable in the URL to edge.
Install Docker, changing the path below to the path where you downloaded the Docker package.
```
$ sudo dnf -y install /path/to/package.rpm
```
Start Docker.
```
$ sudo systemctl start docker
```
Verify that Docker CE is installed correctly by running the hello-world image.
```
$ sudo docker run hello-world
```
This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints an informational message and exits.

Docker CE is installed and running. You need to use sudo to run Docker commands. Continue to Post-installation steps for Linux to allow non-privileged users to run Docker commands and for other optional configuration steps.

Upgrade Docker

To upgrade Docker, download the newer package file and repeat the installation procedure, using dnf -y upgrade instead of dnf -y install, and pointing to the new file.

Uninstall Docker

Uninstall the Docker package:
```
$ sudo dnf remove docker-ce
```
Images, containers, volumes, or customized configuration files on your host are not automatically removed. To delete all images, containers, and volumes:
```
$ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker
```

You must delete any edited configuration files manually.

Next steps

Continue to Post-installation steps for Linux
Continue with the User Guide.

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