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Apologies if this has been asked, but nowhere in the Docker documentation can I find an authoritative list of exit codes (also called exit status). Surprising! I see suggestions about making it consistent, but no docs on docker.com.

Does anyone know where the exit codes can be found?

Tombart
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jeesty
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    in the source code ? – user2915097 Jul 08 '15 at 16:52
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    I'm very sorry if I was unclear. What about errors? For example if I `docker run -v non_existent_directory` or perhaps `docker run improper_container_path` There is a lot that can go wrong, and the exit code should reflect this. – jeesty Jul 09 '15 at 17:09

2 Answers2

113

For Docker >= 1.10 see this PR, which follows standard chroot exit codes:

  • 125: docker run itself fails
  • 126: contained command cannot be invoked
  • 127: if contained command cannot be found
  • 128 + n Fatal error signal n:
    • 130 = (128+2) Container terminated by Control-C
    • 137 = (128+9) Container received a SIGKILL
    • 143 = (128+15) Container received a SIGTERM

Check the man page of signal for the full list (on cmd type man 7 signal or check online e.g. signal).

Check Docker's exit status documentation for more information about the current version.

davidvandebunte
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Tombart
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    And with that PR the docs were also updated: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/run/#/exit-status – Kaos Jul 15 '16 at 09:28
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    “128 + n” — I don’t see any evidence in either the referenced PR or docs that there is any such handling. – Andrew Marshall Apr 18 '23 at 18:42
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Normally it will be the exit status of the process, so it's application dependent i.e:

$ docker run debian sh -c "exit 5;"
$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS                     PORTS               NAMES
7fcc37778df0        debian              "sh -c 'exit 5;'"   4 seconds ago       Exited (5) 3 seconds ago                       reverent_einstein

But in certain cases Docker itself can return an exit code:

  • 125 if the Docker daemon has an error (e.g. a wrong flag is provided)
  • 126 if the container command can't be invoked (e.g. file isn't executable)
  • 127 if the container command can't be found (e.g. wrong path to binary)

https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/run/#exit-status

Adrian Mouat
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