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title: “kill” description: “The kill command description and usage” keywords: “container, kill, signal”

kill

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

Kill one or more running containers

Options:
      --help            Print usage
  -s, --signal string   Signal to send to the container (default "KILL")

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 kill a container using the container's ID, ID-prefix, or name.

Note: ENTRYPOINT and CMD in the shell form run as a subcommand 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 KILL signal to the container named my_container:

$ docker kill my_container

Send a custom signal to a container

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.