docker container kill (original) (raw)

The docker kill subcommand kills one or more containers. The main process inside the container is sent SIGKILL signal (default), or the signal that is specified with the --signal option. You can reference a container by its ID, ID-prefix, or name.

The --signal flag sets the system call signal that is sent to the container. This signal can be a signal name in the format SIG<NAME>, for instance SIGINT, or an unsigned number that matches a position in the kernel's syscall table, for instance 2.

While the default (SIGKILL) signal will terminate the container, the signal set through --signal may be non-terminal, depending on the container's main process. For example, the SIGHUP signal in most cases will be non-terminal, and the container will continue running after receiving the signal.

ENTRYPOINT and CMD in the shell form run as a child process of/bin/sh -c, which does not pass signals. This means that the executable is not the container’s PID 1 and does not receive Unix signals.

Send a KILL signal to a container

The following example sends the default SIGKILL signal to the container namedmy_container:

Send a custom signal to a container (--signal)

The following example sends a SIGHUP signal to the container namedmy_container:

You can specify a custom signal either by name, or number. The SIG prefix is optional, so the following examples are equivalent:

Refer to the signal(7)man-page for a list of standard Linux signals.