How to Set Up and Use a Local Docker Registry

Docker provides the open‑source image repository Distribution, which is hosted on Docker Hub. You can run a private registry locally by executing the following command:

docker run -d -p 5000:5000 --name registry registry:2.7

The Docker engine will pull the registry:2.7 image if it is not already present, and then start the container listening on port 5000.

Verify that the registry container is running with:

docker ps

The output shows a container named registry with port mapping 0.0.0.0:5000->5000/tcp , meaning the private registry is accessible at localhost:5000 .

To push an image to the local registry, first tag the desired image (e.g., busybox ) with the registry address:

docker tag busybox localhost:5000/busybox

Then push the tagged image:

docker push localhost:5000/busybox

The push output confirms that the layers have been uploaded and the image digest is stored in the private registry.

Next, remove the local copies of both the original and the tagged images to simulate a clean environment:

docker rmi busybox localhost:5000/busybox

After confirming the images are gone, pull the image back from the private registry:

docker pull localhost:5000/busybox

The pull command downloads the image layers and reports a successful download.

Finally, list the local images to verify that busybox has been restored from the private registry:

docker image ls busybox

An illustrative screenshot of the process is shown below.