Docker without sudo
It is handy to use docker without the need of sudo.
To run docker commands, it is necessary to prefix them with sudo. This linux command allows the current user to perform actions as root. To run docker commands, you must have root privileges (default).
However, this can be painful. Is not practical to keep informing sudo every time. There should be a simpler way to run docker commands, without the hassle of keep using sudo.
Concept and solution
And there is a simpler way. The concept is this: if your user is in a specific linux group (called “docker”), automatically you will be granted to run docker commands. Simple like that.
So, it is necessary to create this group and then add your own user to it. To create the “docker” linux group, you can use the command (non-root): 1
sudo groupadd docker
And then you have to associate your user to this group, using the command (non-root): 1
sudo usermod -a -G docker [your user]
You can now restart docker service. In Arch Linux, the command is (non-root): 1
sudo systemctl start docker
And now we can test, using a very simple Docker command to print a message on the screen using an Debian container. The command will work without sudo:
docker run debian echo "hello world"
Footnotes
1 The commands here presented were tested in Arch Linux, and may not work correctly in other distros. But the general ideia is the same and Google is there for the rescue.
