Docker, Network Tools for Debugging

• netshoot is like a network diagnostics toolbox in a container.
• Great for debugging Docker networking issues without bloating your app containers.
• Safe to use and easy to clean up.

The nicolaka/netshoot container is a purpose-built Docker image for network troubleshooting — it’s like a Swiss Army knife for diagnosing container network issues.

• Docker: nicolaka/netshoot
• Base image: Alpine Linux (lightweight and fast)
• Purpose: Gives you a fully-loaded container environment with network troubleshooting tools, ideal for debugging Docker networks, container DNS issues, firewall rules, etc.

netshoot comes preloaded with tools like:

It's ideal when your real containers are too minimal to install anything or when you're trying to debug complex networking setups in Docker, Kubernetes, or multi-container stacks.

To quickly start netshoot with access to your Docker bridge:

docker run --rm -it --network bridge nicolaka/netshoot

You can also attach it to a specific container's network:

docker network inspect <network_name>
docker run --rm -it --network <network_name> nicolaka/netshoot

Or, to connect to a specific container’s network namespace:

docker run --rm -it --net container:<container_name_or_id> nicolaka/netshoot

If you’ve run it with --rm (as shown above), Docker removes the container automatically when it exits — nothing to clean up.

If you want to remove the image (to reclaim disk space):

docker rmi nicolaka/netshoot

You can check if it's downloaded first:

docker images | grep netshoot

Some versions of netshoot also include:

Just run it with --rm, and it disappears on exit:

docker run --rm -it --network bridge nicolaka/netshoot

Exit with Ctrl+D or type exit.

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published: June 17 2025.