Skip to content

Application Management

New

Introduced in 0.3.1

apps:clone <old-app> <new-app>                 # Clones an app
apps:create <app>                              # Create a new app
apps:destroy <app>                             # Permanently destroy an app
apps:exists <app>                              # Checks if an app exists
apps:list                                      # List your apps
apps:lock <app>                                # Locks an app for deployment
apps:locked <app>                              # Checks if an app is locked for deployment
apps:rename <old-app> <new-app>                # Rename an app
apps:report [<app>] [<flag>]                   # Display report about an app
apps:unlock <app>                              # Unlocks an app for deployment

Usage

Listing applications

New

Introduced in 0.8.1. Use the apps command for older versions.

You can easily list all available applications using the apps:list command:

dokku apps:list

=====> My Apps
node-js-app
python-app

Note that you can easily hide extra output from Dokku commands by using the --quiet flag, which makes it easier to parse on the command line.

dokku --quiet apps:list

node-js-app
python-app

Checking if an application exists

For CI/CD pipelines, it may be useful to see if an application exists before creating a "review" application for a specific branch. You can do so via the apps:exists command:

dokku apps:exists  node-js-app

App does not exist

The apps:exists command will return non-zero if the application does not exist, and zero if it does.

Manually creating an application

A common pattern for deploying applications to Dokku is to configure an application before deploying it. You can do so via the apps:create command:

dokku apps:create node-js-app

Creating node-js-app... done

Once created, you can configure the application as normal, and deploy the application whenever ready. This is useful for cases where you may wish to do any of the following kinds of tasks:

  • Configure domain names and SSL certificates.
  • Create and link datastores.
  • Set environment variables.

Removing a deployed app

In some cases, you may need to destroy an application, whether it is because the application is temporary or because it was misconfigured. In these cases, you can use the apps:destroy command. Performing any destructive actions in Dokku requires confirmation, and this command will ask for the name of the application being deleted before doing so.

dokku apps:destroy node-js-app

 !     WARNING: Potentially Destructive Action
 !     This command will destroy node-js-app (including all add-ons).
 !     To proceed, type "node-js-app"

Destroying node-js-app (including all add-ons)

Info

node-js-app

This will prompt you to verify the application's name before destroying it. You may also use the --force flag to circumvent this verification process:

dokku --force apps:destroy node-js-app

Destroying node-js-app (including all add-ons)

The --force flag can also be specified on the command vs globally:

dokku apps:destroy --force node-js-app

Destroying node-js-app (including all add-ons)

Destroying an application will unlink all linked services and destroy any config related to the application. Note that linked services will retain their data for later use (or removal).

Renaming a deployed app

New

Introduced in 0.4.7

You can rename a deployed app using the apps:rename command. Note that the application must have been deployed at least once, or the rename will not complete successfully:

dokku apps:rename node-js-app io-js-app

Destroying node-js-app (including all add-ons)
-----> Cleaning up...
-----> Building io-js-app from herokuish...
-----> Adding BUILD_ENV to build environment...
-----> Node.js app detected

-----> Creating runtime environment

...

=====> Application deployed:
       http://io-js-app.ci.dokku.me

Renaming node-js-app to io-js-app... done

This will copy all of your app's contents into a new app directory with the name of your choice, delete your old app, then rebuild the new version of the app and deploy it. All of your config variables, including database urls, will be preserved.

By default, Dokku will deploy the renamed app, though you can skip the deploy by using the --skip-deploy flag:

dokku apps:rename --skip-deploy node-js-app io-js-app

Cloning an existing app

New

Introduced in 0.11.5

You can clone an existing app using the apps:clone command. Note that the application must have been deployed at least once, or cloning will not complete successfully:

dokku apps:clone node-js-app io-js-app

Cloning node-js-app to io-js-app... done

This will copy all of your app's contents into a new app directory with the name of your choice and then rebuild the new version of the app and deploy it with the following caveats:

  • All of your environment variables, including database urls, will be preserved.
  • Custom domains are not applied to the new app.
  • SSL certificates will not be copied to the new app.
  • Port mappings with the scheme https and host-port 443 will be skipped.

Warning

If you have exposed specific ports via docker-options plugin, or performed anything that cannot be done against multiple applications, apps:clone may result in errors.

By default, Dokku will deploy this new app, though you can skip the deploy by using the --skip-deploy flag:

dokku apps:clone --skip-deploy node-js-app io-js-app

Finally, if the application already exists, you may wish to ignore errors resulting from attempting to clone over it. To do so, you can use the --ignore-existing flag. A warning will be emitted, but the command will return 0.

dokku apps:clone --ignore-existing node-js-app io-js-app

Locking app deploys

New

Introduced in 0.11.6

If you wish to disable deploying for a period of time, this can be done via deploy locks. Normally, deploy locks exist only for the duration of a deploy so as to avoid deploys from colliding, but a deploy lock can be created by running the apps:lock command.

dokku apps:lock node-js-app

-----> Deploy lock created

Unlocking app deploys

New

Introduced in 0.11.6

In some cases, it may be necessary to remove an existing deploy lock. This can be performed via the apps:unlock command.

Warning

Removing the deploy lock will not stop in progress deploys. At this time, in progress deploys will need to be manually terminated by someone with server access.

dokku apps:unlock node-js-app

 !     A deploy may be in progress.
 !     Removing the app lock will not stop in progress deploys.
-----> Deploy lock removed.

Checking lock status

New

Introduced in 0.13.0

In some cases, you may wish to inspect the state of an app lock. To do so, you can issue an apps:lock command. This will exit non-zero if there is no app lock in place.

dokku apps:locked node-js-app

Deploy lock does not exist

Displaying reports for an app

New

Introduced in 0.8.1

You can get a report about the deployed apps using the apps:report command:

dokku apps:report

=====> node-js-app app information
       App created at:              1635126111
       App dir:                     /home/dokku/node-js-app
       App deploy source:           git
       App deploy source metadata:  cd7b8afccb202f222e7dc7b427553e71ba5ddafd
       App locked:                  false
=====> python-sample app information
       App created at:              1635126000
       App dir:                     /home/dokku/python-sample
       App deploy source:
       App deploy source metadata:
       App locked:                  false
=====> ruby-sample app information
       App created at:              1635122462
       App dir:                     /home/dokku/ruby-sample
       App deploy source:           git
       App deploy source metadata:  c60921ea2799ca108276414b95ea197f16798d51
       App locked:                  false

You can run the command for a specific app also.

dokku apps:report node-js-app

=====> node-js-app app information
       App dir:                     /home/dokku/node-js-app
       App deploy source:           git
       App deploy source metadata:  cd7b8afccb202f222e7dc7b427553e71ba5ddafd
       App locked:                  false

You can pass flags which will output only the value of the specific information you want. For example:

dokku apps:report node-js-app --app-dir