Docker Installation and Engine¶

Docker Engine on Linux is normally a daemon and a CLI client. Verify the client/server relationship with docker version, docker info, and docker context ls.

The CLI sends API requests to the daemon through its selected context, commonly a local Unix socket. Membership in the docker group is effectively privileged daemon access; treat it as such.

macOS and Windows do not natively offer the Linux kernel features Linux containers need. Docker Desktop runs a Linux environment through virtualization and connects desktop tools to it. Windows commonly uses WSL 2 for Linux containers. Use Docker's current official install guide for distribution-specific installation steps.