How to continue a Docker container which has exited

Question

Consider:

docker run -it centos /bin/bash

I pressed Ctrl+D to exit it.

I wa

Answer 1

You can restart an existing container after it exited and your changes are still there.

docker start  `docker ps -q -l` # restart it in the background
docker attach `docker ps -q -l` # reattach the terminal & stdin

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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

Answer 6

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

1. list stopped containers:

docker ps -a

2. 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.