diff --git a/components/engine/commands.go b/components/engine/commands.go
index e24b7aeece..ec51983ca0 100644
--- a/components/engine/commands.go
+++ b/components/engine/commands.go
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"syscall"
 	"text/tabwriter"
+	"text/template"
 	"time"
 )
 
@@ -632,6 +633,7 @@ func (cli *DockerCli) CmdStart(args ...string) error {
 
 func (cli *DockerCli) CmdInspect(args ...string) error {
 	cmd := cli.Subcmd("inspect", "CONTAINER|IMAGE [CONTAINER|IMAGE...]", "Return low-level information on a container/image")
+	tmplStr := cmd.String("format", "", "Format the output using the given go template.")
 	if err := cmd.Parse(args); err != nil {
 		return nil
 	}
@@ -640,10 +642,21 @@ func (cli *DockerCli) CmdInspect(args ...string) error {
 		return nil
 	}
 
+	var tmpl *template.Template
+	if *tmplStr != "" {
+		var err error
+		if tmpl, err = template.New("").Parse(*tmplStr); err != nil {
+			fmt.Fprintf(cli.err, "Template parsing error: %v\n", err)
+			return &utils.StatusError{StatusCode: 64,
+				Status: "Template parsing error: " + err.Error()}
+		}
+	}
+
 	indented := new(bytes.Buffer)
+	indented.WriteByte('[')
 	status := 0
 
-	for _, name := range args {
+	for _, name := range cmd.Args() {
 		obj, _, err := cli.call("GET", "/containers/"+name+"/json", nil)
 		if err != nil {
 			obj, _, err = cli.call("GET", "/images/"+name+"/json", nil)
@@ -658,23 +671,40 @@ func (cli *DockerCli) CmdInspect(args ...string) error {
 			}
 		}
 
-		if err = json.Indent(indented, obj, "", "    "); err != nil {
-			fmt.Fprintf(cli.err, "%s\n", err)
-			status = 1
-			continue
+		if tmpl == nil {
+			if err = json.Indent(indented, obj, "", "    "); err != nil {
+				fmt.Fprintf(cli.err, "%s\n", err)
+				status = 1
+				continue
+			}
+		} else {
+			// Has template, will render
+			var value interface{}
+			if err := json.Unmarshal(obj, &value); err != nil {
+				fmt.Fprintf(cli.err, "%s\n", err)
+				status = 1
+				continue
+			}
+			if err := tmpl.Execute(cli.out, value); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			cli.out.Write([]byte{'\n'})
 		}
 		indented.WriteString(",")
 	}
 
-	if indented.Len() > 0 {
+	if indented.Len() > 1 {
 		// Remove trailing ','
 		indented.Truncate(indented.Len() - 1)
 	}
-	fmt.Fprintf(cli.out, "[")
-	if _, err := io.Copy(cli.out, indented); err != nil {
-		return err
+	indented.WriteByte(']')
+
+	if tmpl == nil {
+		if _, err := io.Copy(cli.out, indented); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
 	}
-	fmt.Fprintf(cli.out, "]")
+
 	if status != 0 {
 		return &utils.StatusError{StatusCode: status}
 	}
diff --git a/components/engine/docs/sources/commandline/cli.rst b/components/engine/docs/sources/commandline/cli.rst
index a6f15df8a6..d7bb03b954 100644
--- a/components/engine/docs/sources/commandline/cli.rst
+++ b/components/engine/docs/sources/commandline/cli.rst
@@ -659,6 +659,54 @@ Insert file from github
 
     Return low-level information on a container
 
+      -format="": template to output results
+
+By default, this will render all results in a JSON array.  If a format
+is specified, the given template will be executed for each result.
+
+Go's `text/template <http://golang.org/pkg/text/template/>` package
+describes all the details of the format.
+
+Examples
+~~~~~~~~
+
+Get an instance's IP Address
+............................
+
+For the most part, you can pick out any field from the JSON in a
+fairly straightforward manner.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    docker inspect -format='{{.NetworkSettings.IPAddress}}' $INSTANCE_ID
+
+List All Port Bindings
+......................
+
+One can loop over arrays and maps in the results to produce simple
+text output:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    docker inspect -format='{{range $p, $conf := .NetworkSettings.Ports}} {{$p}} -> {{(index $conf 0).HostPort}} {{end}}' $INSTANCE_ID
+
+Find a Specific Port Mapping
+............................
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+The ``.Field`` syntax doesn't work when the field name begins with a
+number, but the template language's ``index`` function does.  The
+``.NetworkSettings.Ports`` section contains a map of the internal port
+mappings to a list of external address/port objects, so to grab just
+the numeric public port, you use ``index`` to find the specific port
+map, and then ``index`` 0 contains first object inside of that.  Then
+we ask for the ``HostPort`` field to get the public address.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    docker inspect -format='{{(index (index .NetworkSettings.Ports "8787/tcp") 0).HostPort}}' $INSTANCE_ID
+
 .. _cli_kill:
 
 ``kill``
diff --git a/components/engine/docs/sources/examples/postgresql_service.rst b/components/engine/docs/sources/examples/postgresql_service.rst
index 82ca8b59ca..e142f65899 100644
--- a/components/engine/docs/sources/examples/postgresql_service.rst
+++ b/components/engine/docs/sources/examples/postgresql_service.rst
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ on the machine.  For ubuntu, use something like
 
 .. code-block:: bash
 
-    CONTAINER_IP=$(sudo docker inspect $CONTAINER | grep IPAddress | awk '{ print $2 }' | tr -d ',"')
+    CONTAINER_IP=$(sudo docker inspect -format='{{.NetworkSettings.IPAddress}}' $CONTAINER)
     psql -h $CONTAINER_IP -p 5432 -d docker -U docker -W
 
 As before, create roles or databases if needed.