How do I use docker command's "--format" option?
I take the risk of being downvoted here, but I find Go templates a nightmare to use beyond the most basic use cases. Don't take me wrong: they are extremely powerful as you can guess it by reading the docs, but I find the syntax unfriendly, and for the most complex cases, I prefer parsing the JSON output with jq. Anyway:

Formatting expect commands

sho$ CID=$(sudo docker run --rm -d busybox sleep 3000)                                                                                         
sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID
[
    {
        "Id": "0470a3549d2f41efd0477cf8fc4eb3a27aca592f089c018ad24704031bbef967",
        "Created": "2019-02-05T16:41:40.040349047Z",
        "Path": "sleep",
        "Args": [
            "3000"
        ],
        "State": {
            "Status": "running",
            "Running": true,
            "Paused": false,
            "Restarting": false,
            "OOMKilled": false,
            "Dead": false,
            "Pid": 26467,
            "ExitCode": 0,
            "Error": "",
            "StartedAt": "2019-02-05T16:41:40.659056612Z",
            "FinishedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
        },
        "Image": "sha256:3a093384ac306cbac30b67f1585e12b30ab1a899374dabc3170b9bca246f1444",
        "ResolvConfPath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/0470a3549d2f41efd0477cf8fc4eb3a27aca592f089c018ad24704031bbef967/resolv.conf",
        "HostnamePath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/0470a3549d2f41efd0477cf8fc4eb3a27aca592f089c018ad24704031bbef967/hostname",
        "HostsPath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/0470a3549d2f41efd0477cf8fc4eb3a27aca592f089c018ad24704031bbef967/hosts",
        "LogPath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/0470a3549d2f41efd0477cf8fc4eb3a27aca592f089c018ad24704031bbef967/0470a3549d2f41efd0477cf8fc4eb3a27aca592f089c018ad24704031bbef967-json.log",
        "Name": "/vibrant_shaw",
        "RestartCount": 0,
        "Driver": "aufs",
        "Platform": "linux",
        "MountLabel": "",
        "ProcessLabel": "",
        "AppArmorProfile": "docker-default",
        "ExecIDs": null,
        "HostConfig": {
            "Binds": null,
            "ContainerIDFile": "",
           "LogConfig": {
                "Type": "json-file",
                "Config": {}
            },
            "NetworkMode": "default",
            "PortBindings": {},
            "RestartPolicy": {
                "Name": "no",
                "MaximumRetryCount": 0
            },
            "AutoRemove": true,
            "VolumeDriver": "",
            "VolumesFrom": null,
            "CapAdd": null,
            "CapDrop": null,
            "Dns": [],
            "DnsOptions": [],
            "DnsSearch": [],
            "ExtraHosts": null,
            "GroupAdd": null,
            "IpcMode": "shareable",
            "Cgroup": "",
            "Links": null,
            "OomScoreAdj": 0,
            "PidMode": "",
            "Privileged": false,
            "PublishAllPorts": false,
            "ReadonlyRootfs": false,
            "SecurityOpt": null,
            "UTSMode": "",
            "UsernsMode": "",
            "ShmSize": 67108864,
            "Runtime": "runc",
            "ConsoleSize": [
                0,
                0
            ],
            "Isolation": "",
            "CpuShares": 0,
            "Memory": 0,
            "NanoCpus": 0,
            "CgroupParent": "",
            "BlkioWeight": 0,
            "BlkioWeightDevice": [],
            "BlkioDeviceReadBps": null,
            "BlkioDeviceWriteBps": null,
            "BlkioDeviceReadIOps": null,
            "BlkioDeviceWriteIOps": null,
            "CpuPeriod": 0,
            "CpuQuota": 0,
            "CpuRealtimePeriod": 0,
            "CpuRealtimeRuntime": 0,
            "CpusetCpus": "",
            "CpusetMems": "",
            "Devices": [],
            "DeviceCgroupRules": null,
            "DiskQuota": 0,
            "KernelMemory": 0,
            "MemoryReservation": 0,
            "MemorySwap": 0,
            "MemorySwappiness": null,
            "OomKillDisable": false,
            "PidsLimit": 0,
            "Ulimits": null,
            "CpuCount": 0,
            "CpuPercent": 0,
            "IOMaximumIOps": 0,
            "IOMaximumBandwidth": 0,
            "MaskedPaths": [
                "/proc/acpi",
                "/proc/kcore",
                "/proc/keys",
                "/proc/latency_stats",
                "/proc/timer_list",
                "/proc/timer_stats",
                "/proc/sched_debug",
                "/proc/scsi",
                "/sys/firmware"
            ],
            "ReadonlyPaths": [
                "/proc/asound",
                "/proc/bus",
                "/proc/fs",
                "/proc/irq",
                "/proc/sys",
                "/proc/sysrq-trigger"
            ]
        },
        "GraphDriver": {
            "Data": null,
            "Name": "aufs"
        },
        "Mounts": [],
        "Config": {
            "Hostname": "0470a3549d2f",
            "Domainname": "",
            "User": "",
            "AttachStdin": false,
            "AttachStdout": false,
            "AttachStderr": false,
            "Tty": false,
            "OpenStdin": false,
            "StdinOnce": false,
            "Env": [
                "PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
            ],
            "Cmd": [
                "sleep",
                "3000"
            ],
            "Image": "busybox",
            "Volumes": null,
            "WorkingDir": "",
            "Entrypoint": null,
            "OnBuild": null,
            "Labels": {}
        },
        "NetworkSettings": {
            "Bridge": "",
            "SandboxID": "654da638965d9bb26e394ba61036ea713bdccb6304eb09bee86f3c0611a26ca5",
            "HairpinMode": false,
            "LinkLocalIPv6Address": "",
            "LinkLocalIPv6PrefixLen": 0,
            "Ports": {},
            "SandboxKey": "/var/run/docker/netns/654da638965d",
            "SecondaryIPAddresses": null,
            "SecondaryIPv6Addresses": null,
            "EndpointID": "c69ef9cb870a3c477105c7bc19e370683886e4e3c62fac8444d3e1e097551250",
            "Gateway": "172.17.0.1",
            "GlobalIPv6Address": "",
            "GlobalIPv6PrefixLen": 0,
            "IPAddress": "172.17.0.3",
            "IPPrefixLen": 16,
            "IPv6Gateway": "",
            "MacAddress": "02:42:ac:11:00:03",
            "Networks": {
                "bridge": {
                    "IPAMConfig": null,
                    "Links": null,
                    "Aliases": null,
                    "NetworkID": "5ec8728b05efd5ce6bfde5cbe6e42f247348345e0fdfb305fda76566327fc151",
                    "EndpointID": "c69ef9cb870a3c477105c7bc19e370683886e4e3c62fac8444d3e1e097551250",
                    "Gateway": "172.17.0.1",
                    "IPAddress": "172.17.0.3",
                    "IPPrefixLen": 16,
                    "IPv6Gateway": "",
                    "GlobalIPv6Address": "",
                    "GlobalIPv6PrefixLen": 0,
                    "MacAddress": "02:42:ac:11:00:03",
                    "DriverOpts": null
                }
            }
        }
    }
]


Returning scalar properties

You can query any scalar attribute by its name, prefixed by a dot:

sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID --format '{{.Id}}
0470a3549d2f41efd0477cf8fc4eb3a27aca592f089c018ad24704031bbef967
sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID --format '{{.Name}} {{.Driver}}'
/vibrant_shaw aufs

# jq notation
sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID | jq '.[].Id'
"0470a3549d2f41efd0477cf8fc4eb3a27aca592f089c018ad24704031bbef967"

sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID | jq '.[]|(.Name,.Driver)'
"/vibrant_shaw"
"aufs"


You can also query nested fields:

sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID --format '{{.State.Running}}'
true

# jq notation
sudo docker inspect $CID | jq '.[].State.Running'
true


Returning entire objects and arrays

But it does not work as expected for nested structures:

sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID --format '{{.State}}'
{running true false false false false 26467 0  2019-02-05T16:41:40.659056612Z 0001-01-01T00:00:00Z &lt;nil&gt;}


You end up having the data, but without the field names, it is pretty useless--unless you are assuming some predefined field order (something that is probably not safe).

When accessing entire objects, there are chances you want an explicit formatter:

sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID --format '{{json .State}}'
{"Status":"running","Running":true,"Paused":false,"Restarting":false,"OOMKilled":false,"Dead":false,"Pid":26467,"ExitCode":0,"Error":"","StartedAt":"2019-02-05T16:41:40.659056612Z","FinishedAt":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"}

# jq notation
sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID | jq '.[].State'
{
  "Status": "running",
  "Running": true,
  "Paused": false,
  "Restarting": false,
  "OOMKilled": false,
  "Dead": false,
  "Pid": 26467,
  "ExitCode": 0,
  "Error": "",
  "StartedAt": "2019-02-05T16:41:40.659056612Z",
  "FinishedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}


Same thing for arrays:

sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID --format '{{.HostConfig.ReadonlyPaths}}'
[/proc/asound /proc/bus /proc/fs /proc/irq /proc/sys /proc/sysrq-trigger]

sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID --format '{{json .HostConfig.ReadonlyPaths}}'
["/proc/asound","/proc/bus","/proc/fs","/proc/irq","/proc/sys","/proc/sysrq-trigger"]

sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID --format '{{join .HostConfig.ReadonlyPaths ":"}}'
/proc/asound:/proc/bus:/proc/fs:/proc/irq:/proc/sys:/proc/sysrq-trigger

# jq notation
sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID | jq '.[].HostConfig.ReadonlyPaths'
[
  "/proc/asound",
  "/proc/bus",
  "/proc/fs",
  "/proc/irq",
  "/proc/sys",
  "/proc/sysrq-trigger"
]
sh$ sudo docker inspect $CID | jq '.[].HostConfig.ReadonlyPaths | join(":")'
"/proc/asound:/proc/bus:/proc/fs:/proc/irq:/proc/sys:/proc/sysrq-trigger"


Arrays of objects

More complicated (according to my limited Go Template skills) is accessing fields nested in an array of objects:

# This works as expected
sh$ sudo docker network inspect bridge --format '{{json .IPAM.Config}}'
[{"Subnet":"172.17.0.0/16","Gateway":"172.17.0.1"}]

# But not that
sudo docker network inspect bridge --format '{{.IPAM.Config.Gateway}}'

Template parsing error: template: :1:7: executing "" at &lt;.IPAM.Config.Gateway&gt;: can't evaluate field Gateway in type interface {}


When I want to extract such nested value, I resort on an explicit range loop:

sh$ sudo docker network inspect bridge --format '{{range .IPAM.Config}}{{.Gateway}}{{end}}'
172.17.0.1

# jq notation
sh$ sudo docker network inspect bridge | jq '.[].IPAM.Config[].Gateway'
"172.17.0.1"

sh$ sudo docker network inspect bridge | jq -r '.[].IPAM.Config[].Gateway'
172.17.0.1


Formatting ls commands

With the json formatter, we can obtain (some? all?) the possible selectors you can later use with --format:

sh$ sudo docker network ls --format '{{json .}}'
{"CreatedAt":"2019-01-07 14:28:55.63238018 +0100 CET","Driver":"bridge","ID":"5ec8728b05ef","IPv6":"false","Internal":"false","Labels":"","Name":"bridge","Scope":"local"}
{"CreatedAt":"2019-02-05 15:36:57.701603791 +0100 CET","Driver":"bridge","ID":"45d6f09ca923","IPv6":"false","Internal":"false","Labels":"com.docker.compose.network=default,com.docker.compose.project=compose-demo,com.docker.compose.version=1.23.2","Name":"compose-demo_default","Scope":"local"}
{"CreatedAt":"2019-02-05 17:30:47.98883918 +0100 CET","Driver":"bridge","ID":"aaff418d1c56","IPv6":"false","Internal":"false","Labels":"com.docker.compose.network=net,com.docker.compose.project=compose-demo,com.docker.compose.version=1.23.2","Name":"compose-demo_net","Scope":"local"}
{"CreatedAt":"2018-05-26 10:31:48.149819089 +0200 CEST","Driver":"host","ID":"988954899b53","IPv6":"false","Internal":"false","Labels":"","Name":"host","Scope":"local"}
{"CreatedAt":"2018-05-26 10:31:48.118573602 +0200 CEST","Driver":"null","ID":"ce1680ed377f","IPv6":"false","Internal":"false","Labels":"","Name":"none","Scope":"local"}
{"CreatedAt":"2019-02-05 19:44:21.286955573 +0100 CET","Driver":"bridge","ID":"41c62c023d16","IPv6":"false","Internal":"false","Labels":"com.docker.compose.version=1.23.2,com.docker.compose.network=default,com.docker.compose.project=test","Name":"test_default","Scope":"local"}


Here, you can see docker network ls exposes, among others, the "ID", "Driver" and "Scope" fields. You can use them in your format:

sh$ $ sudo docker network ls --format '{{.ID}}: {{.Driver}} ({{.Scope}})'
5ec8728b05ef: bridge (local)
45d6f09ca923: bridge (local)
aaff418d1c56: bridge (local)
988954899b53: host (local)
ce1680ed377f: null (local)
41c62c023d16: bridge (local)


The best of both worlds

The docker ... ls commands only exports a small subset of the docker object's properties. Depending your needs, you may prefer something along the lines of docker ... inspect $(docker ... ls -q).

For example, docker image ls does not export the image architecture. but you can obtain it with docker image inspect. If you want that information, you could use something like that:

sh$ sudo docker image inspect \
         --format '{{.Id}}: {{.RepoTags}} ({{.Architecture}})' \
         $(sudo docker image ls -q)
sha256:fc37804350a8adea0b41dba0c413a6c967140ca2ed6dfeefdbe88d7868902406: [compose-demo_monitor:latest] (amd64)
sha256:a6f30c0890bca94e3cf5930ad5c3358b06cb38450e92d4ddabeb208ee34383f8: [compose-demo_app:latest] (amd64)
sha256:a79892b33e0bb51598e9311cc1d23ca8d0e3013a5a15fd67d202d22ffd08a6af: [] (amd64)
sha256:394c82635f220db389b8532e316001674965b51679dbc8dff747d5f224e6d568: [] (amd64)
sha256:95f0c755feb65af441c0cb8727bb13b35517977a3bed06e4a3456c95d6a69dd4: [redis:5.0-alpine] (amd64)
sha256:1f6c34f7921c7b50ef4452737399b5cff0eb834fc183d188d82886fd23b7fc34: [node:8] (amd64)
sha256:3a093384ac306cbac30b67f1585e12b30ab1a899374dabc3170b9bca246f1444: [busybox:latest] (amd64)