What does the DOCKER_HOST variable do?

Question

I\'m new to Docker, using Boot2Docker on OSX. After booting it, this message is given:

To connect the Docker client to the Docker daemon, please set
export DOCKE         


        

Answer 1

Upon investigation, it's also worth noting that when you want to start using docker in a new terminal window, the correct command is:

$(boot2docker shellinit)

I had tested these commands:

>>  docker info
Get http:///var/run/docker.sock/v1.15/info: dial unix /var/run/docker.sock: no such file or directory
>>  boot2docker shellinit
Writing /Users/ddavison/.boot2docker/certs/boot2docker-vm/ca.pem
Writing /Users/ddavison/.boot2docker/certs/boot2docker-vm/cert.pem
Writing /Users/ddavison/.boot2docker/certs/boot2docker-vm/key.pem
    export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://192.168.59.103:2376
    export DOCKER_CERT_PATH=/Users/ddavison/.boot2docker/certs/boot2docker-vm
    export DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY=1
>> docker info
Get http:///var/run/docker.sock/v1.15/info: dial unix /var/run/docker.sock: no such file or directory

Notice that docker info returned that same error. however.. when using $(boot2docker shellinit)...

>>  $(boot2docker init)
Writing /Users/ddavison/.boot2docker/certs/boot2docker-vm/ca.pem
Writing /Users/ddavison/.boot2docker/certs/boot2docker-vm/cert.pem
Writing /Users/ddavison/.boot2docker/certs/boot2docker-vm/key.pem
>>  docker info
Containers: 3
...