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Doctl / List Droplets

List Droplets

Command to list all droplets in the DigitalOcean account.

Terminal

doctl compute d ls

doctl compute d ls

#!/bin/bash

# List Droplets
doctl compute {{[d|droplet]}} {{[ls|list]}}

import subprocess

# List Droplets
# Make sure to replace <placeholders> with actual values
def run_command():
    cmd = [
        "doctl",
        "compute",
        "d",
        "ls"
    ]
    
    try:
        print(f"Executing: {' '.join(cmd)}")
        subprocess.run(cmd, check=True)
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}")
    except FileNotFoundError:
        print("Error: doctl not found. Please install it first.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    run_command()

When To Use

During routine infrastructure audits before scaling activities.

Pro Tip

Use the `--format` flag to customize output columns. Combining this with `--tagged` can optimize the view for specific environments.

Terminal Output

Expected runtime feedback

Simulated preview

Output

ID            Name            Public IPv4      Status
12345678      web-server-1    192.0.2.1       active
87654321      db-server-1     192.0.2.2       active
23456789      app-server-1    192.0.2.3       off

Anatomy of Output

Understanding the result

ID Name Status Size Region Tags Header

Describes the columns returned.

123456 droplet-1 active s-1vcpu-1gb lon1 webserver,production Droplet Entry

Each entry corresponds to a droplet with its metadata.

123457 droplet-2 off s-1vcpu-1gb nyc1 staging Droplet Entry

Status indicates if it is running or stopped.

Power User Variants

Optimized versions

doctl compute droplet list --format ID,Name,Status

Retrieves a selective view of droplet details.

Unix Pipeline

Shell combinations

doctl compute droplet list --tagged webserver

Lists droplets associated with the 'webserver' tag.

Troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

Error: Unauthorized

Solution: Check if your access token is valid and has the required permissions.

Error: No droplets found

Solution: Verify that there are droplets in the specified account.

Error: Invalid request

Solution: Confirm that the command syntax adheres to the documentation.

Command Breakdown

What each part is doing

doctl: Base Command; The executable that performs this operation. Here it runs Doctl before the shell applies any redirect operators.
d: d|droplet; The value supplied for d|droplet.
ls: ls|list; The value supplied for ls|list.

How To Run

Execution path

Step 1
Run `doctl compute droplet list` to view all droplets.
Step 2
Check the status and IP addresses for scaling decisions.

Alternative Approaches

Comparable commands in other tools

Alternative cloud infrastructure tools for the same job.

Gcloud / Ssh Virtual Machine Instance gcloud compute ssh <user>@<instance> Flyctl / View Status Of Specific Application flyctl status --app <app_name> Aws / Delete Eks Cluster 1608 aws eks delete-cluster --name <cluster_name> Gh / Create Codespace Github Interactively gh cs create Cradle / Submit Elasticsearch Schema cradle elastic map