[docker] How to continue a Docker container which has exited

Consider:

docker run -it centos /bin/bash

I pressed Ctrl+D to exit it.

I want to continue to run this container, but I found I can't.

The only method is

docker commit `docker ps -q -l` my_image
docker run -it my_image /bin/bash

Am I right? Is there a better method? (I'm using docker 0.8.0.)

This question is related to docker

The answer is


Run your container with --privileged flag.

docker run -it --privileged ...

These commands will work for any container (not only last exited ones). This way will work even after your system has rebooted. To do so, these commands will use "container id".

Steps:

  1. List all dockers by using this command and note the container id of the container you want to restart: docker ps -a

  2. Start your container using container id: docker start <container_id>

  3. Attach and run your container: docker attach <container_id>

NOTE: Works on linux


If you have a named container then it can be started by running

docker container start container_name

where container_name is name of the container that must be given at the time of creating container. You can replace container_name with the container id in case the container is not named. The container ID can be found by running:

docker ps -a

docker start -a -i `docker ps -q -l`

Explanation:

docker start start a container (requires name or ID)
-a attach to container
-i interactive mode
docker ps List containers
-q list only container IDs
-l list only last created container


If you want to do it in multiple, easy-to-remember commands:

  1. list stopped containers:

docker ps -a

  1. copy the name or the container id of the container you want to attach to, and start the container with:

docker start -i <name/id>

The -i flag tells docker to attach to the container's stdin.

If the container wasn't started with an interactive shell to connect to, you need to do this to run a shell:

docker start <name/id>
docker exec -it <name/id> /bin/sh

The /bin/sh is the shell usually available with alpine-based images.


If you want to continue exactly one Docker container with a known name:

docker start  `docker ps -a -q --filter "name=elas"`

by name

sudo docker start bob_the_container

or by Id

sudo docker start aa3f365f0f4e

this restarts stopped container, use -i to attach container's STDIN or instead of -i you can attach to container session (if you run with -it)

sudo docker attach bob_the_container

Use:

docker start $(docker ps -a -q --filter "status=exited")

This will start all containers which are in the exited state.

docker exec -it <container-id> /bin/bash

This will connect to the particular container.


Follow these steps:

  1. Run below command to see that all the container services both running and stopped on. Option -a is given to see that the container stops as well

    docker ps -a
    
  2. Then start the docker container either by container_id or container tag names

    docker start <CONTAINER_ID> or <NAMES>
    

    enter image description here

    Say from the above picture, container id 4b161b302337
    So command to be run is

    docker start 4b161b302337
    
  3. One can verify whether the container is running with

    docker ps
    

docker start `docker ps -a | awk '{print $1}'`

This will start up all the containers that are in the 'Exited' state