I'm seeing strange names in my list of docker containers, is someone having fun at docker or is that from hackers?

Question

I'm trying to run a docker and it fails for various reasons. As I check my list of dockers (docker ps -a), I see those names:

pedantic_gauss
recursing_feynman
adoring_brattain
suspicious_tesla
gallant_gates
competent_gates
elated_davinci
ecstatic_mahavira
focused_mirzakhani

I use docker-compose and I'm sure we do not have such names in our setup files. Is that just something docker people thought would be fun to do?! I searched on some of those names and could not really find anything useful, although it looks like these appear on many sites, somewhat sporadically.

Those are the default names Docker will set when you don't set one yourself. — ThoriumBR, Feb 10 '20 at 00:32
@ThoriumBR Wow! Good to know, but why not just use docker1, docker2, etc. These just look scary/hacky! — Alexis Wilke, Feb 10 '20 at 00:41
The names aren't scary. It's an adjective plus a famous name: Gauss, Tesla, Gates, Einstein... — ThoriumBR, Feb 10 '20 at 05:09

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 17 '20 at 11:18

14

As mentioned in comments this is part of Docker's innate functionality, and is designed to make it easier to work with containers.

The canonical identifier for a Docker container is a SHA-256 hash, which is not the most user friendly thing to type.

So if you don't specify a name (using --name) when you start a container Docker will assign one to you.

The names are a combination of an adjective and a scientist's name, and the source code for generation is here. There is only one combination that is blocked in the Docker source code which is "boring_wozniak" because Steve Wozniak's not boring.

answered Mar 17 '20 at 11:18

Rory McCune

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Wow! They use a goto... – Alexis Wilke Dec 06 '20 at 16:51
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@AlexisWilke angry_djisktra is allowed by the code – stevesliva Nov 22 '22 at 19:38
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@stevesliva https://homepages.cwi.nl/~storm/teaching/reader/Dijkstra68.pdf ... :-) – Alexis Wilke Nov 23 '22 at 00:27
Thanks for your explanation! I finally figure out how does the wield name come from. I find this innovation is not very enjoyable. Perhaps the combination of using 'image name' and a 'random string ID' would be more suitable for new developers. – Ryan Lyu Dec 10 '23 at 09:00

I'm seeing strange names in my list of docker containers, is someone having fun at docker or is that from hackers?

1 Answers1