containers

`docker restart`

Stops and then starts one or more containers, preserving their configuration. Equivalent to docker stop followed by docker start.

Syntax

docker restart [OPTIONS] CONTAINER [CONTAINER...]

Common flags

Flag	Purpose
-t, --timeout	Seconds to wait before killing (default 10)
-s, --signal	Signal to send to the container (default SIGTERM)
CONTAINER	One or more container names or IDs to restart

Examples

docker restart web

Restart a single container

docker restart -t 30 db

Give the DB 30s to flush before restart

docker restart $(docker ps -q)

Restart every running container

docker restart web api worker

Restart several services together

Gotcha

restart does not re-pull the image or pick up new env/mount flags — for those, docker rm + docker run (or compose up) are required. Restart policies (--restart=always) are separate from this command.

Related commands

docker stop

Gracefully stops one or more running containers by sending SIGTERM and then SIGKILL after a timeout. Use docker kill for an immediate SIGKILL.

docker start

Starts one or more previously created or stopped containers using their existing configuration. Unlike docker run it does not create a new container.

docker run

Creates and starts a new container from a specified image in a single step. This is the primary command for launching workloads and supports extensive configuration for networking, storage, and process control.

docker compose

Manages multi-container applications defined in a compose.yaml file. This is the Compose V2 plugin invoked via 'docker compose' (space); the legacy hyphenated 'docker-compose' binary is deprecated.

docker ps

Lists containers along with their status, ports, and identifiers. By default it shows only running containers unless -a is passed.

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