runlikers

Reverse-engineer docker run command line arguments from running containers.

Ever looked at a running container and wondered "how did I start this thing?" runlikers inspects a container and prints the exact docker run command needed to reproduce it — ports, volumes, env vars, labels, resource limits, and everything else.

Inspired by runlike (Python), rewritten in Rust for single-binary distribution and better performance.

Features

• Two data backends: bollard API (default, with image-aware filtering) or docker inspect CLI (--inspect)
• 55+ supported options: from --volume and -p to --ulimit, --health-cmd, --sysctl, and more
• Pretty mode (-p): multi-line output with \ line continuations
• Custom indent (--indent): tab by default, or specify spaces
• Tidy mode (--tidy): filter out Docker daemon defaults
• Dual format (--mount): outputs both --volume and --mount formats
• Remote hosts (-H): unix://, tcp://, ssh://, https://
• Pure Rust TLS: via rustls, no OpenSSL dependency
• Single static binary, no runtime dependencies

Installation

# From source
git clone git@github.com:dyrnq/runlikers.git
cd runlikers
cargo build --release
cp target/release/runlikers ~/.local/bin/

# Via cargo
cargo install --git git@github.com:dyrnq/runlikers.git

# Docker (works with bollard and --inspect modes)
docker run --rm -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
    dyrnq/runlikers my-container

# Shell alias
alias runlikers='docker run --rm -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock dyrnq/runlikers'

Usage

# Basic — inspect a running container
runlikers my-container

# Pretty-printed (multi-line, default: tab indent)
runlikers -p my-container

# 4-space indent in pretty mode
runlikers -p --indent '    ' my-container

# Exclude container name / labels
runlikers --no-name --no-labels my-container

# Use docker inspect CLI instead of bollard API
runlikers --inspect my-container

# Filter out daemon defaults
runlikers --tidy my-container

# Combine modes
runlikers --inspect --tidy -p my-container

# Emit --mount alongside --volume
runlikers --mount my-container

# Pipe docker inspect output directly
docker inspect my-container | runlikers --stdin

# Connect to a remote Docker host
runlikers -H tcp://192.168.1.100:2375 my-container
runlikers -H ssh://user@remote-host my-container

Options

CLI flags

Supported docker run options

Data backends

bollard API (default)

Uses the bollard Rust library to talk to the Docker daemon via its REST API. Also fetches image metadata to filter out options inherited from the image (e.g. ENV lines, image LABELs, default ENTRYPOINT).

runlikers my-container

--inspect mode (docker inspect CLI)

Runs docker inspect <container> as a subprocess and parses its JSON. No image metadata — everything from the container is shown verbatim.

runlikers --inspect my-container

--stdin mode

Read raw docker inspect JSON from stdin — useful for scripting or offline analysis where Docker is not available.

docker inspect my-container | runlikers --stdin

Tidy mode

--tidy filters out options that are likely Docker daemon defaults rather than user-specified:

Example

# Default output
$ runlikers -p nginx
docker run \
    --name=nginx \
    --hostname=debian \
    --volume /tmp/nginx-conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d:ro \
    --network=host \
    --restart=always \
    --log-opt max-size=100m \
    --runtime=runc \
    --shm-size="67108864" \
    --ipc=private \
    --stop-signal=SIGQUIT \
    --ulimit NOFILE=10000:10000 \
    --detach=true \
    nginx:1.27.0-alpine \
    nginx -g 'daemon off;'

# With --tidy (defaults filtered out)
$ runlikers --tidy -p nginx
docker run \
    --name=nginx \
    --hostname=debian \
    --volume /tmp/nginx-conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d:ro \
    --network=host \
    --restart=always \
    --log-opt max-size=100m \
    --ulimit NOFILE=10000:10000 \
    --detach=true \
    nginx:1.27.0-alpine \
    nginx -g 'daemon off;'

Comparison with runlike (Python)

License

MIT