docs/reference/commandline/login.md

# login

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Authenticate to a registry.
Defaults to Docker Hub if no server is specified.

### Options

| Name                                         | Type     | Default | Description                                                        |
|:---------------------------------------------|:---------|:--------|:-------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `-p`, `--password`                           | `string` |         | Password or Personal Access Token (PAT), or `-` to read from stdin |
| [`--password-stdin`](#password-stdin)        | `bool`   |         | Take the Password or Personal Access Token (PAT) from stdin        |
| [`-u`](#username), [`--username`](#username) | `string` |         | Username                                                           |


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## Description

Authenticate to a registry.

You can authenticate to any public or private registry for which you have
credentials. Authentication may be required for pulling and pushing images.
Other commands, such as `docker scout` and `docker build`, may also require
authentication to access subscription-only features or data related to your
Docker organization.

Authentication credentials are stored in the configured [credential
store](#credential-stores). If you use Docker Desktop, credentials are
automatically saved to the native keychain of your operating system. If you're
not using Docker Desktop, you can configure the credential store in the Docker
configuration file, which is located at `$HOME/.docker/config.json` on Linux or
`%USERPROFILE%/.docker/config.json` on Windows. If you don't configure a
credential store, Docker stores credentials in the `config.json` file in a
base64-encoded format. This method is less secure than configuring and using a
credential store.

`docker login` also supports [credential helpers](#credential-helpers) to help
you handle credentials for specific registries.

### Authentication methods

You can authenticate to a registry using a username and access token or
password. Docker Hub also supports a web-based sign-in flow, which signs you in
to your Docker account without entering your password. For Docker Hub, the
`docker login` command uses a device code flow by default, unless the
`--username` flag is specified. The device code flow is a secure way to sign
in. See [Authenticate to Docker Hub using device code](#authenticate-to-docker-hub-with-web-based-login).

### Credential stores

The Docker Engine can keep user credentials in an external credential store,
such as the native keychain of the operating system. Using an external store
is more secure than storing credentials in the Docker configuration file.

To use a credential store, you need an external helper program to interact
with a specific keychain or external store. Docker requires the helper
program to be in the client's host `$PATH`.

You can download the helpers from the `docker-credential-helpers`
[releases page](https://github.com/docker/docker-credential-helpers/releases).
Helpers are available for the following credential stores:

- D-Bus Secret Service
- Apple macOS keychain
- Microsoft Windows Credential Manager
- [pass](https://www.passwordstore.org/)

With Docker Desktop, the credential store is already installed and configured
for you. Unless you want to change the credential store used by Docker Desktop,
you can skip the following steps.

#### Docker Desktop sign-in

When Docker Desktop is running and you are signed in, commands that pull or
push images through the Docker Engine, such as `docker pull`, `docker push`,
`docker run`, and `docker service create`, use the Docker Desktop session for
Docker Hub (`docker.io`) and Docker Hardened Images (`dhi.io`). The session is
used before the credential store, credential helpers, and the configuration
file. Credentials set in the `DOCKER_AUTH_CONFIG` environment variable take
precedence over the Docker Desktop session. If Docker Desktop is not installed
or not running, or you are not signed in, the Docker CLI uses its own
credentials.

#### Configure the credential store

You need to specify the credential store in `$HOME/.docker/config.json`
to tell the Docker Engine to use it. The value of the config property should be
the suffix of the program to use (i.e. everything after `docker-credential-`).
For example, to use `docker-credential-osxkeychain`:

```json
{
  "credsStore": "osxkeychain"
}
```

If you are currently logged in, run `docker logout` to remove
the credentials from the file and run `docker login` again.

#### Default behavior

By default, Docker looks for the native binary on each of the platforms, i.e.
`osxkeychain` on macOS, `wincred` on Windows, and `pass` on Linux. A special
case is that on Linux, Docker will fall back to the `secretservice` binary if
it cannot find the `pass` binary. If none of these binaries are present, it
stores the base64-encoded credentials in the `config.json` configuration file.

#### Credential helper protocol

Credential helpers can be any program or script that implements the credential
helper protocol. This protocol is inspired by Git, but differs in the
information shared.

The helpers always use the first argument in the command to identify the action.
There are only three possible values for that argument: `store`, `get`, and `erase`.

The `store` command takes a JSON payload from the standard input. That payload carries
the server address, to identify the credential, the username, and either a password
or an identity token.

```json
{
  "ServerURL": "https://index.docker.io/v1",
  "Username": "david",
  "Secret": "passw0rd1"
}
```

If the secret being stored is an identity token, the Username should be set to
`<token>`.

The `store` command can write error messages to `STDOUT` that the Docker Engine
will show if there was an issue.

The `get` command takes a string payload from the standard input. That payload carries
the server address that the Docker Engine needs credentials for. This is
an example of that payload: `https://index.docker.io/v1`.

The `get` command writes a JSON payload to `STDOUT`. Docker reads the user name
and password from this payload:

```json
{
  "Username": "david",
  "Secret": "passw0rd1"
}
```

The `erase` command takes a string payload from `STDIN`. That payload carries
the server address that the Docker Engine wants to remove credentials for. This is
an example of that payload: `https://index.docker.io/v1`.

The `erase` command can write error messages to `STDOUT` that the Docker Engine
will show if there was an issue.

### Credential helpers

Credential helpers are similar to [credential stores](#credential-stores), but
act as the designated programs to handle credentials for specific registries.
The default credential store will not be used for operations concerning
credentials of the specified registries.

#### Configure credential helpers

If you are currently logged in, run `docker logout` to remove
the credentials from the default store.

Credential helpers are specified in a similar way to `credsStore`, but
allow for multiple helpers to be configured at a time. Keys specify the
registry domain, and values specify the suffix of the program to use
(i.e. everything after `docker-credential-`). For example:

```json
{
  "credHelpers": {
    "myregistry.example.com": "secretservice",
    "docker.internal.example": "pass",
  }
}
```

## Examples

### Authenticate to Docker Hub with web-based login

By default, the `docker login` command authenticates to Docker Hub, using a
device code flow. This flow lets you authenticate to Docker Hub without
entering your password. Instead, you visit a URL in your web browser, enter a
code, and authenticate.

```console
$ docker login

Using web-based login. To sign in with credentials on the command line, use 'docker login -u <username>'

Your one-time device confirmation code is: LNFR-PGCJ
Open this URL to authenticate: https://login.docker.com/activate?user_code=LNFR-PGCJ

Press ENTER to open the URL in your browser, or Ctrl+C to cancel.
```

After entering the code in your browser, you are authenticated to Docker Hub
using the account you're currently signed in with on the Docker Hub website or
in Docker Desktop. If you aren't signed in, you are prompted to sign in after
entering the device code.

### Authenticate to a self-hosted registry

If you want to authenticate to a self-hosted registry you can specify this by
adding the server name.

```console
$ docker login registry.example.com
```

By default, the `docker login` command assumes that the registry listens on
port 443 or 80. If the registry listens on a different port, you can specify it
by adding the port number to the server name.

```console
$ docker login registry.example.com:1337
```

> [!NOTE]
> Registry addresses should not include URL path components, only the hostname
> and (optionally) the port. Registry addresses with URL path components may
> result in an error. For example, `docker login registry.example.com/foo/`
> is incorrect, while `docker login registry.example.com` is correct.
>
> The exception to this rule is the Docker Hub registry, which may use the
> `/v1/` path component in the address for historical reasons.

### <a name="username"></a> Authenticate to a registry with a username and password

To authenticate to a registry with a username and password, you can use the
`--username` or `-u` flag. The following example authenticates to Docker Hub
with the username `moby`. The password is entered interactively.

```console
$ docker login -u moby
```

### <a name="password-stdin"></a> Provide a password using STDIN (--password-stdin)

To run the `docker login` command non-interactively, you can set the
`--password-stdin` flag to provide a password through `STDIN`. Using
`STDIN` prevents the password from ending up in the shell's history,
or log-files.

The following example reads a password from a file, and passes it to the
`docker login` command using `STDIN`:

```console
$ cat ~/my_password.txt | docker login --username foo --password-stdin
```

You can also pass `-` as the value for `--password` or `-p` to read the
password from `STDIN`.

```console
$ cat ~/my_password.txt | docker login --username foo --password -
```

## Related commands

* [logout](logout.md)