Docker Running containers Container restart policy (starting a container at boot)
Example
docker run --restart=always -d <container>
By default, Docker will not restart containers when the Docker daemon restarts, for example after a host system reboot. Docker provides a restart policy for your containers by supplying the --restart command line option. Supplying --restart=always will always cause a container to be restarted after the Docker daemon is restarted. However when that container is manually stopped (e.g. with docker stop <container>), the restart policy will not be applied to the container.
Multiple options can be specified for --restart option, based on the requirement (--restart=[policy]). These options effect how the container starts at boot as well.
| Policy | Result |
|---|---|
| no | The default value. Will not restart container automatically, when container is stopped. |
| on-failure[:max-retries] | Restart only if the container exits with a failure (non-zero exit status). To avoid restarting it indefinitely (in case of some problem), one can limit the number of restart retries the Docker daemon attempts. |
| always | Always restart the container regardless of the exit status. When you specify always, the Docker daemon will try to restart the container indefinitely. The container will also always start on daemon startup, regardless of the current state of the container. |
| unless-stopped | Always restart the container regardless of its exit status, but do not start it on daemon startup if the container has been put to a stopped state before. |
