Correct way to detach from a container without stopping it

Question

In Docker 1 1 2  latest   what s the correct way to detach from a container without stopping it   So for example  if I try    docker run -i -t foo  bin bash or docker attach foo  for already running container    both of which get me to a terminal in the container  how do I exit the container s terminal without stopping it   exit and CTR C both stop the container

User · Answer

If you just want see the output of the process running from within the container, you can do a simple docker container logs -f <container id>.

The -f flag makes it so that the output of the container is followed and updated in real-time. Very useful for debugging or monitoring.

User · Answer

I consider Ashwin s answer to be the most correct  my old answer is below   I d like to add another option here which is to run the container as follows  docker run -dti foo bash   You can then enter the container and run bash with  docker exec -ti ID of foo bash   No need to install sshd

User · Answer

Try CTRL P CTRL Q to turn interactive mode to daemon  If this does not work and you attached through docker attach  you can detach by killing the docker attach process  Better way is to use sig-proxy parameter to avoid passing the CTRL C to your container   docker attach --sig-proxy false  container-name   Same option is available for docker run command

User · Answer

The default way to detach from an interactive container is Ctrl P Ctrl Q  but you can override it when running a new container or attaching to existing container using the --detach-keys flag

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If you do  docker attach  container id  you get into the container  To exit from the container without stopping the container you need to enter Ctrl P Q

User · Answer

You can use the --detach-keys option when you run docker attach to override the default CTRL P  CTRL   Q sequence  that doesn t always work    For example  when you run docker attach --detach-keys  ctrl-a   test and you press CTRL A you will exit the container  without killing it   Other examples    docker attach --detach-keys  ctrl-a x   test - press CTRL A and then X to exit docker attach --detach-keys  a b c   test - press A  then B  then C to exit   Extract from the official documentation   If you want  you can configure an override the Docker key sequence for detach  This is useful if the Docker default sequence conflicts with key sequence you use for other applications  There are two ways to define your own detach key sequence  as a per-container override or as a configuration property on your entire configuration   To override the sequence for an individual container  use the --detach-keys   lt sequence gt   flag with the docker attach command  The format of the  lt sequence gt  is either a letter  a-Z   or the ctrl- combined with any of the following    a-z  a single lowercase alpha character      at sign     left bracket     two backward slashes     underscore     caret    These a  ctrl-a  X  or ctrl-   values are all examples of valid key sequences  To configure a different configuration default key sequence for all containers  see Configuration file section   Note  This works since docker version 1 10   at the time of this answer  the current version is 18 03

User · Answer

Old post but just exit then start it again    the issue is if you are on a windows machine Ctrl p or Ctrl P are tied to print      exiting the starting the container should not hurt anything

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I dug into this and all the answers above are partially right   It all depends on how the container is launched   It comes down to the following when the container was launched    was a TTY allocated  -t  was stdin left open  -i     P Q does work  BUT only when -t and -i is used to launch the container    berto g6   docker run -ti -d --name test python 3 6  bin bash -c  while   1    do sleep 30  done   b26e39632351192a9a1a00ea0c2f3e10729b6d3e22f8e0676d6519e15c08b518   berto g6   docker attach test   here I typed  P Q read escape sequence    i m back to my prompt  berto g6   docker kill test  docker rm -v test test test   ctrl c does work  BUT only when -t  without -i  is used to launch the container    berto g6   docker run -t -d --name test python 3 6  bin bash -c  while   1    do sleep 30  done   018a228c96d6bf2e73cccaefcf656b02753905b9a859f32e60bdf343bcbe834d   berto g6   docker attach test  C   berto g6         The third way to detach  There is a way to detach without killing the container though  you need another shell   In summary  running this in another shell detached and left the container running pkill -9 -f  docker  attach     berto g6   docker run -d --name test python 3 6  bin bash -c  while   1    do sleep 30  done   b26e39632351192a9a1a00ea0c2f3e10729b6d3e22f8e0676d6519e15c08b518   berto g6   docker attach test   here I typed  P Q and doesn t work  P   ctrl c doesn t work either  C   can t background either  Z    go to another shell and run the  pkill  command above    i m back to my prompt  berto g6     Why  Because you re killing the process that connected you to the container  not the container itself

User · Answer

In Docker container atleast one process must be run  then only the container will be running the docker image ubuntu httd  etc  whatever it is  at background without exiting For example in ubuntu docker image   To create a new container with detach mode  running background atleast on process   docker run -d -i -t f63181f19b2f  bin bash  it will create a new contain for this image ubuntu  id f63181f19b2f   The container will run in the detached mode  running in background  at that time a small process tty bash shell will be running at background  so  container will keep on running untill the bash shell process will killed  To attach to the running background container use docker attach  b1a0873a8647  if you want to detach from container without exiting without killing the bash shell   By default   you can use ctrl-p q  it will come out of container without exiting from the container running background  that means without killing the bash shell   You can pass the custom command during attach time to container  docker attach --detach-keys  quot ctrl-s quot  b1a0873a8647  this time ctrl-p q escape sequence won t work  instead  ctrl-s will work for exiting from container  you can pass any key eg   ctrl-

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Update  As mentioned in below answers Ctrl p  Ctrl q will now turn interactive mode into daemon mode     Well Ctrl C  or Ctrl    should detach you from the container but it will kill the container because your main process is a bash   A little lesson about docker  The container is not a real full functional OS  When you run a container the process you launch take the PID 1 and assume init power  So when that process is terminated the daemon stop the container until a new process is launched  via docker start   More explanation on the matter http   phusion github io baseimage-docker  intro   If you want a container that run in detached mode all the time  i suggest you use  docker run -d foo   With an ssh server on the container   easiest way is to follow the dockerizing openssh tutorial https   docs docker com engine examples running ssh service    Or you can just relaunch your container via  docker start foo    it will be detached by default

User · Answer

Type Ctrl p then Ctrl q  It will help you to turn interactive mode to daemon mode   See https   docs docker com v1 7 articles basics  running-an-interactive-shell     To detach the tty without exiting the shell    use the escape sequence Ctrl-p   Ctrl-q   note  This will continue to exist in a stopped state once exited  see  docker ps -a

User · Answer

You can simply kill docker cli process by sending SEGKILL  If you started the container with docker run -it some container You can get it s pid ps -aux   grep docker user   1234  0 3  0 6 1357948 54684 pts 2   Sl   15 09   0 00 docker run -it some container  let s say it s 1234  you can  quot detach quot  it with kill -9 1234 It s somewhat of a hack but it works

[docker] Correct way to detach from a container without stopping it

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