--- title: "attach" description: "The attach command description and usage" keywords: "attach, running, container" --- # attach ```markdown Usage: docker attach [OPTIONS] CONTAINER Attach local standard input, output, and error streams to a running container Aliases: docker container attach, docker attach Options: --detach-keys string Override the key sequence for detaching a container --help Print usage --no-stdin Do not attach STDIN --sig-proxy Proxy all received signals to the process (default true) ``` ## Description Use `docker attach` to attach your terminal's standard input, output, and error (or any combination of the three) to a running container using the container's ID or name. This allows you to view its ongoing output or to control it interactively, as though the commands were running directly in your terminal. > **Note:** > The `attach` command will display the output of the `ENTRYPOINT/CMD` process. This > can appear as if the attach command is hung when in fact the process may simply > not be interacting with the terminal at that time. You can attach to the same contained process multiple times simultaneously, from different sessions on the Docker host. To stop a container, use `CTRL-c`. This key sequence sends `SIGKILL` to the container. If `--sig-proxy` is true (the default),`CTRL-c` sends a `SIGINT` to the container. If the container was run with `-i` and `-t`, you can detach from a container and leave it running using the `CTRL-p CTRL-q` key sequence. > **Note:** > A process running as PID 1 inside a container is treated specially by > Linux: it ignores any signal with the default action. So, the process > will not terminate on `SIGINT` or `SIGTERM` unless it is coded to do > so. It is forbidden to redirect the standard input of a `docker attach` command while attaching to a TTY-enabled container (using the `-i` and `-t` options). While a client is connected to container's `stdio` using `docker attach`, Docker uses a ~1MB memory buffer to maximize the throughput of the application. Once this buffer is full, the speed of the API connection is affected, and so this impacts the output process' writing speed. This is similar to other applications like SSH. Because of this, it is not recommended to run performance critical applications that generate a lot of output in the foreground over a slow client connection. Instead, users should use the `docker logs` command to get access to the logs. ### Override the detach sequence 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=""` flag with the `docker attach` command. The format of the `` 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](cli.md#configuration-files). ## Examples ### Attach to and detach from a running container The following example starts an ubuntu container running `top` in detached mode, then attaches to the container; ```console $ docker run -d --name topdemo ubuntu:22.04 /usr/bin/top -b $ docker attach topdemo top - 12:27:44 up 3 days, 21:54, 0 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 Tasks: 1 total, 1 running, 0 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie %Cpu(s): 0.1 us, 0.1 sy, 0.0 ni, 99.8 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st MiB Mem : 3934.3 total, 770.1 free, 674.2 used, 2490.1 buff/cache MiB Swap: 1024.0 total, 839.3 free, 184.7 used. 2814.0 avail Mem PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1 root 20 0 7180 2896 2568 R 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 top ``` As the container was started without the `-i`, and `-t` options, signals are forwarded to the attached process, which means that the default `CTRL-p CTRL-q` detach key sequence produces no effect, but pressing `CTRL-c` terminates the container: ```console <...> PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1 root 20 0 7180 2896 2568 R 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 top^P^Q ^C $ docker ps -a --filter name=topdemo CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 4cf0d0ebb079 ubuntu:22.04 "/usr/bin/top -b" About a minute ago Exited (0) About a minute ago topdemo ``` Repeating the example above, but this time with the `-i` and `-t` options set; ```console $ docker run -dit --name topdemo2 ubuntu:22.04 /usr/bin/top -b ``` Now, when attaching to the container, and pressing the `CTRL-p CTRL-q` ("read escape sequence"), the Docker CLI is handling the detach sequence, and the `attach` command is detached from the container. Checking the container's status with `docker ps` shows that the container is still running in the background: ```console $ docker attach topdemo2 top - 12:44:32 up 3 days, 22:11, 0 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 Tasks: 1 total, 1 running, 0 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie %Cpu(s): 50.0 us, 0.0 sy, 0.0 ni, 50.0 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st MiB Mem : 3934.3 total, 770.6 free, 672.4 used, 2491.4 buff/cache MiB Swap: 1024.0 total, 839.3 free, 184.7 used. 2815.8 avail Mem PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1 root 20 0 7180 2776 2452 R 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 topread escape sequence $ docker ps -a --filter name=topdemo2 CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES b1661dce0fc2 ubuntu:22.04 "/usr/bin/top -b" 2 minutes ago Up 2 minutes topdemo2 ``` ### Get the exit code of the container's command And in this second example, you can see the exit code returned by the `bash` process is returned by the `docker attach` command to its caller too: ```console $ docker run --name test -dit alpine 275c44472aebd77c926d4527885bb09f2f6db21d878c75f0a1c212c03d3bcfab $ docker attach test /# exit 13 $ echo $? 13 $ docker ps -a --filter name=test CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES a2fe3fd886db alpine "/bin/sh" About a minute ago Exited (13) 40 seconds ago test ```