Hosting Operations
Check Container Health Status
You need to see health-check state without opening a full inspect dump.
Command
docker inspect --format '{{.Name}} health={{if .State.Health}}{{.State.Health.Status}}{{else}}none{{end}} status={{.State.Status}}' webWhat changed
Nothing changes. Docker reads container state metadata.
Danger
safe
When to use it
Use when a container is running but the service still seems unavailable.
When not to use it
Do not use it as a full app check if the image has no HEALTHCHECK.
Undo or recovery
No undo needed because this command is read-only.
Expected output
/web health=healthy status=running
demo script
Disposable terminal steps
docker inspect --format '{{.Name}} health={{if .State.Health}}{{.State.Health.Status}}{{else}}none{{end}} status={{.State.Status}}' webdocker inspect --format '{{range .State.Health.Log}}{{.End}} {{.ExitCode}} {{.Output}}{{end}}' web
simulated output
What it looks like
::fixture-ready::
$ docker inspect --format '{{.Name}} health={{if .State.Health}}{{.State.Health.Status}}{{else}}none{{end}} status={{.State.Status}}' web
/web health=healthy status=running
::exit-code::0
$ docker inspect --format '{{range .State.Health.Log}}{{.End}} {{.ExitCode}} {{.Output}}{{end}}' web
/web health=healthy status=running
::exit-code::0
YouTube Short
Running is not healthy.
Running only means the process exists. If the image has a health check, print both Docker status and health status.
LinkedIn hook
Docker may say a container is running while its health check says otherwise.
Question: How often do you see running containers that are still unhealthy?
experiments
A/B tests to run
Metric: comment_rate
A: Running is not the same as healthy.
B: Docker status can lie by omission.