Install Docker on Debian

Debian is a great linux distribution, and Docker is a great tool to have installed. Installing Docker on Debian is straightforward as described on docs.docker.com.

Bill’s Docker Install Script

If you would like to forgo the manual CLI process described in the documentation, I have written a script that will carry out the process for you. All you need to do is run the script and provide the sudo password when prompted.

Instructions

1. Get the code from the github gist displayed below downloaded where you can find it.

2. Review the code, modify it if necessary (works fine for me!)

3. Make the script executable: chmod u+x install_docker.sh

4. Execute the script to install Docker engine: ./install_docker.sh

If you want something to paste into a terminal on Debian 12, try this if you dare:

sh -c "$(curl https://billthewizard.net/_static/install_docker.sh)"

Why share this code?

Docker is central to how I work on some of my projects, but I like the option to remove Docker if I have a dedicated system to run those workloads off of my workstation.

Consequently, I end up having to install Docker again. Each time, I pull up the docker docs webpage next to a terminal emulator and copy the lines in as described. Not a big deal at all, but I have probably done this 12+ times now, and I am ready to have executable code on the internet that I can safely execute to accomplish this task.

Script features

• Checks docker compose version to determine if you have docker engine already.

• Removes conflicting packages if they are they installed.

• Adds the docker.com gpg key to /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc in idempotent fashion

• Adds the apt repo file to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list in idempotent fashion

• Installs docker engine packages

Serving suggestion

I’d use this script to install docker engine on a fresh Debian 12 system, or I may use it to install docker engine after purging a system of old project files.

I would like to adapt the code such that it can work on debian-based distros: Ubuntu, Mint, Kali, etc. As is, you will need to modify /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list.

Code

#!/bin/sh

# billthewizard.net
# Install docker on debian, example shell script.

compose_version=$( docker compose version )

case "$compose_version" in
        "") ;;
        *Docker\ Compose*) echo "Docker already installed!"; exit;;
esac

for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose podman-docker containerd runc 
        do sudo apt-get remove $pkg 
done

if ! [ -e /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc ]
then
        sudo apt-get update
        sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
        sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
        sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg \
        -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
        sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
fi

if ! [ -e /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list ]
then
        echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] \
        https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
        $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
        sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
        sudo apt-get update
fi

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Github Gist