mag37/dockcheck

What is it?

Key features

• 01Interactive selection or fully unattended updates of Docker containers
• 02Include, exclude and label-based filtering of containers
• 03Image backups retagged for easy rollback, with age-based cleanup
• 04Notifications via many channels including ntfy, Telegram, Slack and Home Assistant
• 05Docker Compose support and optional containerized deployment
• 06Prometheus metrics export through the node_exporter textfile collector

Use cases

• Keeping a homelab's self-hosted Docker services up to date on a schedule
• Getting notified about available container updates without applying them automatically
• Rolling back a container to its previous image after a faulty update
• Monitoring pending image updates through Prometheus or Zabbix

Quick start

1. 1

   Download the script to ~/.local/bin with curl

   curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mag37/dockcheck/main/dockcheck.sh -o ~/.local/bin/dockcheck.sh
2. 2

   Make the script executable

   chmod +x ~/.local/bin/dockcheck.sh
3. 3

   Run the script to check for container updates

   dockcheck.sh

Things to know

• !Requires Bash 4.3 or newer, jq, and a running Docker with compose.
• !Written in Bash, so it only runs on Linux-like shells; Podman needs a separate fork.

In collections

Topics

FAQ

What is dockcheck?

Bash CLI that checks Docker containers for newer images and updates them interactively or unattended, with notifications, image backups and autoprune. dockcheck is a shell script that compares the images used by your running Docker containers against their registries and reports which ones have newer versions. You can then choose which containers to update interactively, or run it unattended from cron with filters for inclusion, exclusion and label-based selection.

Is dockcheck free to use? What license does it have?

dockcheck is open source under the GPL-3.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.

Is dockcheck still maintained?

Actively maintained. The last commit to dockcheck was on Oct 14, 2026.

What can I use dockcheck for?

Keeping a homelab's self-hosted Docker services up to date on a schedule Getting notified about available container updates without applying them automatically Rolling back a container to its previous image after a faulty update Monitoring pending image updates through Prometheus or Zabbix

How do I install dockcheck?

Download the script to ~/.local/bin with curl: curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mag37/dockcheck/main/dockcheck.sh -o ~/.local/bin/dockcheck.sh Make the script executable: chmod +x ~/.local/bin/dockcheck.sh Run the script to check for container updates: dockcheck.sh

Where can I get dockcheck?

The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/mag37/dockcheck