Install Docker Engine on WSL

Before installing Docker Engine on WSL, make sure you have WSL installed and running. If not, you can install it by following the instructions in the Mastering WSL post.

Setup Docker’s `apt` repository

The main reason we need to setup Docker’s apt repository is to ensure that we’re installing the latest version of Docker Engine on WSL. By default, the apt repository only contains the stable version of Docker Engine, which may not be the latest version.


# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
 
# Add the repository to Apt sources:
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}")
Components: stable
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF
 
sudo apt update

Install the Docker packages


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

By default, the Docker service will start automatically after installation. You can verify it by using the following command:


sudo systemctl status docker

If it is disabled, you cam enable it by running the following commands:


sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl start docker

Verify the installation


sudo docker run hello-world

Add your user to the docker group [Recommended]

Post Install

Refer here for more details.

By default, you need sudo access to run Docker commands. To avoid this, you can add the current user to the docker group.


sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker
 
# check the access
docker run hello-world

Install Docker Engine on WSL