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Application Management

New

Introduced in 0.3.1

apps                                           # List your apps
apps:create <app>                              # Create a new app
apps:destroy <app>                             # Permanently destroy an app
apps:rename <old-app> <new-app>                # Rename an app

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

dokku apps

=====> 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

node-js-app
python-app

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)

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.