<commit_before>page_title: Installation on Mac OS X
page_description: Instructions for installing Docker on OS X using boot2docker.
page_keywords: Docker, Docker documentation, requirements, boot2docker, VirtualBox, SSH, Linux, OSX, OS X, Mac

# Installing Docker on Mac OS X

> **Note:**
> Docker is supported on Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" or newer.

The Docker Engine uses Linux-specific kernel features, so to run it on OS X
we need to use a lightweight virtual machine (vm).  You use the OS X Docker client to
control the virtualized Docker Engine to build, run, and manage Docker containers.

To make this process easier, we've designed a helper application called
[Boot2Docker](https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker) that installs the
virtual machine and runs the Docker daemon.

## Demonstration

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wQsrKX4588U?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

## Installation

1. Download the latest release of the [Docker for OSX Installer](
   https://github.com/boot2docker/osx-installer/releases)

2. Run the installer, which will install VirtualBox and the Boot2Docker management
   tool.
   ![](/installation/images/osx-installer.png)

3. Run the `Boot2Docker` app in the `Applications` folder:
   ![](/installation/images/osx-Boot2Docker-Start-app.png)

   Or, to initiate Boot2Docker manually, open a terminal and run:

	     $ boot2docker init
	     $ boot2docker start
	     $ export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://$(boot2docker ip 2>/dev/null):2375

   The `boot2docker init` command will ask you to enter an SSH key passphrase - the simplest
   (but least secure) is to just hit [Enter]. This passphrase is used by the
   `boot2docker ssh` command.

Once you have an initialized virtual machine, you can control it with `boot2docker stop`
and `boot2docker start`.

## Upgrading

1. Download the latest release of the [Docker for OSX Installer](
   https://github.com/boot2docker/osx-installer/releases)

2. Run the installer, which will update VirtualBox and the Boot2Docker management
   tool.

3. To upgrade your existing virtual machine, open a terminal and run:

        $ boot2docker stop<commit_msg>Remove mention of SSH passphrase, it was only present in v0.12<commit_after>page_title: Installation on Mac OS X
page_description: Instructions for installing Docker on OS X using boot2docker.
page_keywords: Docker, Docker documentation, requirements, boot2docker, VirtualBox, SSH, Linux, OSX, OS X, Mac

# Installing Docker on Mac OS X

> **Note:**
> Docker is supported on Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" or newer.

The Docker Engine uses Linux-specific kernel features, so to run it on OS X
we need to use a lightweight virtual machine (vm).  You use the OS X Docker client to
control the virtualized Docker Engine to build, run, and manage Docker containers.

To make this process easier, we've designed a helper application called
[Boot2Docker](https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker) that installs the
virtual machine and runs the Docker daemon.

## Demonstration

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wQsrKX4588U?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

## Installation

1. Download the latest release of the [Docker for OSX Installer](
   https://github.com/boot2docker/osx-installer/releases)

2. Run the installer, which will install VirtualBox and the Boot2Docker management
   tool.
   ![](/installation/images/osx-installer.png)

3. Run the `Boot2Docker` app in the `Applications` folder:
   ![](/installation/images/osx-Boot2Docker-Start-app.png)

   Or, to initialize Boot2Docker manually, open a terminal and run:

	     $ boot2docker init
	     $ boot2docker start
	     $ export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://$(boot2docker ip 2>/dev/null):2375

Once you have an initialized virtual machine, you can control it with `boot2docker stop`
and `boot2docker start`.

## Upgrading

1. Download the latest release of the [Docker for OSX Installer](
   https://github.com/boot2docker/osx-installer/releases)

2. Run the installer, which will update VirtualBox and the Boot2Docker management
   tool.

3. To upgrade your existing virtual machine, open a terminal and run:

        $ boot2docker stop
{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.08246197718631179, 'fraction_numerical': 0.022100760456273766, 'mean_word_length': 4.341370558375634, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 7, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 13, 'https://': 6, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 2, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 4, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
{'dir': 'git-commits-cleaned', 'id': '4310452', 'n_tokens_mistral': 1331, 'n_tokens_neox': 1207, 'n_words': 505}