docker error - 'name is already in use by container'

Question

Running the docker registry with below command always throws an error:

dev:tmp me$ docker run \\
     -d --name registry-v1 \\
     -e SETTINGS_         


        

Answer 1

Just to explain what others are saying (it took me some time to understand) is that, simply put, when you see this error, it means you already have a container and what you have to do is run it. While intuitively docker run is supposed to run it, it doesn't. The command docker run is used to only START a container for the very first time. To run an existing container what you need is docker start $container-name. So much for asking developers to create meaningful/intuitive commands.