# Docker inspect - Retrieve network's information > Use docker inspect to quickly retrieve detailed configuration and network information for your Docker containers in JSON format. Get a power tip with jq. ---  **TL;DR** This article shows how to use `docker inspect ` to get a container's full JSON configuration, and how to pull out just the network name/IP from the `NetworkSettings.Networks` property using `docker inspect | jq -r '.[0].NetworkSettings.Networks'`. The `docker inspect` command is used to retrieve detailed information about various Docker objects, including images, containers, volumes, networks, and nodes. It provides a comprehensive overview of the object's configuration, state, and other relevant details. The returned information is a JSON representation of the object. One use case is to be able to retrieve the name of the network used by a given container. ## Get the network name in one line You have a container running and you want to know which network it is attached to. One command: ```bash $ docker inspect phpinfo | jq -r '.[0].NetworkSettings.Networks' ``` You'll get something like this: ```json { "bridge": { "IPAMConfig": null, "Links": null, "Aliases": null, "NetworkID": "efd8b4ee99a7d4283cdfecd122a9357ea8415d3f7cb60b53bda36f1f08d76847", "EndpointID": "58ff9063ffdb295ed5b9935a036c2f32225312a3290fdcd90eda96e5f5b6c12b", "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 } } ``` There it is: the network name is the key (`bridge` here), and right below it the `Gateway` and `IPAddress` you usually need in the same breath. Replace `phpinfo` with your own container name and you're done. > **jq:** > > If you don't have the `jq` binary yet, please read the [The jq utility for Linux](/blog/linux-jq) article. ## The full inspect output That one-liner is just a filter on a much bigger answer. Running `docker inspect ` (in our case, `docker inspect phpinfo`) without `jq` gives a very detailed JSON representation: ```json [ { "Id": "1243e5a1d063920759525befa6e374fe2a9bc7ae032559877522e59d7afdc6e8", "Created": "2023-12-12T07:52:38.480516578Z", "Path": "docker-php-entrypoint", "Args": [ "apache2-foreground" ], [...] //highlight-next-line "NetworkSettings": { //highlight-next-line [...] //highlight-next-line "Networks": { //highlight-next-line "bridge": { //highlight-next-line "IPAMConfig": null, //highlight-next-line "Links": null, //highlight-next-line [...] //highlight-next-line } //highlight-next-line } [...] } [...] } ] ``` The highlighted lines are the ones the `jq` filter above walks through: `NetworkSettings`, then `Networks`. Everything else in that dump — mounts, environment, entrypoint, state, health — is available the same way, by pointing `jq` at another property. **No container running? Create one to play with.** For the illustration, please start a Linux shell and run `mkdir -p /tmp/inspect && cd $_`. Create a new `index.php` file with this content: **index.php** ```php