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title	description	keywords
kill	The kill command description and usage	container, kill, signal

kill

Usage:  docker kill [OPTIONS] CONTAINER [CONTAINER...]

Kill one or more running containers

Aliases:
  docker container kill, docker kill

Options:
      --help            Print usage
  -s, --signal string   Signal to send to the container

Description

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.

Note

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.

Examples

Send a KILL signal to a container

The following example sends the default SIGKILL signal to the container named my_container:

$ docker kill my_container

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

The following example sends a SIGHUP signal to the container named my_container:

$ docker kill --signal=SIGHUP  my_container

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

$ docker kill --signal=SIGHUP my_container
$ docker kill --signal=HUP my_container
$ docker kill --signal=1 my_container

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

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