Docker Success / Normal Termination

Docker Exit Code 0 indicates that the container's main process exited successfully without any errors. This is the expected behavior for a container that completes its task normally, such as a batch job, a script execution, or a service that gracefully shuts down.

Common Causes

The container's main process completed its intended task successfully.
The application inside the container exited gracefully as designed.
A script executed within the container finished without errors.
A long-running service was intentionally stopped or configured to exit after a specific operation.

How to Fix

1 Confirm Expected Behavior

Verify that the container's purpose was indeed to perform a specific task and then terminate successfully. For example, a container running a one-off script should exit with 0.

BASH

$ docker inspect <container_id_or_name> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}'

2 Review Container Logs

Even with an exit code 0, it's good practice to review container logs to ensure the application performed as expected and didn't encounter any internal warnings or non-fatal issues that might indicate an incomplete or partially successful operation.

BASH

$ docker logs <container_id_or_name>

3 Investigate Premature Exit (for long-running services)

If a container running a long-lived service (e.g., web server, database) exits with code 0, it means the main process terminated gracefully but unexpectedly. This often points to an issue with the application's startup script or configuration that caused it to shut down immediately after starting, rather than staying alive.

BASH

 $ docker ps -a | grep Exited
docker inspect <container_id_or_name> --format '{{.LogPath}}'