% DOCKER(1) Docker User Manuals % Docker Community % OCT 2015
docker-network-connect - connect a container to a network
docker network connect NAME CONTAINER
[--help]
Connects a running container to a network. You can connect a container by name or by ID. Once connected, the container can communicate with other containers in the same network.
$ docker network connect multi-host-network container1
You can also use the docker run --net=<network-name> option to start a container and immediately connect it to a network.
$ docker run -itd --net=multi-host-network busybox
You can pause, restart, and stop containers that are connected to a network. Paused containers remain connected and a revealed by a network inspect. When the container is stopped, it does not appear on the network until you restart it. The container's IP address is not guaranteed to remain the same when a stopped container rejoins the network.
To verify the container is connected, use the docker network inspect command. Use docker network disconnect to remove a container from the network.
Once connected in network, containers can communicate using only another container's IP address or name. For overlay networks or custom plugins that support multi-host connectivity, containers connected to the same multi-host network but launched from different Engines can also communicate in this way.
You can connect a container to one or more networks. The networks need not be the same type. For example, you can connect a single container bridge and overlay networks.
NAME Specify network driver name
CONTAINER Specify container name
--help Print usage statement
OCT 2015, created by Mary Anthony mary@docker.com