Getting Started

Foreground or daemon?

Mode	Command	Stops with
Foreground	dockup	Ctrl+C
Background	dockup daemon start	dockup daemon stop

Only one may run at a time — the second starter refuses with a one-line message telling you what is already holding the bridge.

Your first containers

Point any Docker client at the bridge. The per-command way:

docker -H npipe:////./pipe/dockup_engine version
docker -H npipe:////./pipe/dockup_engine run --rm hello-world

The sticky way (current shell only):

$env:DOCKER_HOST = 'npipe:////./pipe/dockup_engine'
docker run --rm hello-world
docker run -it --rm debian:bookworm bash

Interactive sessions, exec, and logs -f all work natively — see Using Docker.

Checking status

dockup ps

STATUS      AUTOSTART   INSTALLED   SIZE      MEMORY
running     off         yes         452 MB    128 MB

• STATUS is running (engine answering), starting... (bridge up, engine still booting), or stopped.
• AUTOSTART is on/off (Windows login autostart).
• INSTALLED is yes/no, SIZE is distro disk use, MEMORY its live RAM use.

Stopping

dockup daemon stop   # stop the background bridge (distro stays warm for fast restart)
dockup shutdown      # stop everything, foreground included, and terminate the distro (ps => stopped)

Ctrl+C in a foreground stops the bridge the same way daemon stop does — the distro itself stays warm in both cases (shutdown is the only thing that stops it). Ctrl+C not working at all? Run dockup shutdown from another terminal — it stops the stuck foreground too.

Starting at Windows login (opt-in)

dockup daemon autostart on    # create the Startup entry (default off)
dockup daemon autostart       # query: autostart: on|off
dockup daemon autostart off   # remove the Startup entry