"No command specified" from re-imported docker image/container

I am trying to take a docker container from one machine and run it on another and encountering this error: "Error response from daemon: No command specified".

Below is a simplified example showing the problem:

docker --version
Docker version 1.10.1, build 9e83765
docker pull ubuntu
docker run --name u1 -dit ubuntu:latest
docker export -o exported u1
docker stop u1
docker rm u1
docker import exported ubuntu:imported
docker run --name u1 -dit ubuntu:imported
docker: Error response from daemon: No command specified.

In that example, we first pull an image (ubuntu) and successfully create/run container u1 from it. Then we export that container to a file (exported), stop/remove the container, import the file into a new image (ubuntu:imported) and try to run a new container from it. It fails.

Solution 1:

docker export does not export everything about the container — just the filesystem. So, when importing the dump back into a new docker image, additional flags need to be specified to recreate the context.

For example, if the original container was running fine because the Dockerfile that was used for creating its image had CMD ["/usr/bin/supervisord"] in it, then import your dump this way:

docker import \
--change 'CMD ["/usr/bin/supervisord"]' \
path/to/dump.tar imagename:tagname

Solution 2:

you can use docker load command to load images from archive file . this command will import image file and args together.