Web Server Rescue

Find Restarting Containers Fast

A service is unstable and you need to quickly identify containers stuck restarting.

Command

docker ps -a --filter status=restarting --format 'table {{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}\t{{.Image}}'

What changed

Nothing changes. Docker filters container metadata to restarting containers.

Danger

safe

When to use it

Use when an app is unavailable, flapping, or repeatedly failing startup checks.

When not to use it

Do not stop at this command; follow with recent logs for the failing container.

Undo or recovery

No undo needed because this command is read-only.

Expected output

A table of restarting containers, or no rows if none match.

demo script

Disposable terminal steps

docker ps -a --filter status=restarting --format 'table {{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}\t{{.Image}}'
docker logs --tail 40 api

Terminal transcript Demo JSON

simulated output

What it looks like

disposable vessel

::fixture-ready::
$ docker ps -a --filter status=restarting --format 'table {{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}\t{{.Image}}'
NAMES     STATUS                         IMAGE
api       Restarting (1) 18 seconds ago  registry.example/api:v1.9.4
::exit-code::0
$ docker logs --tail 40 api
api: loading config
api: ERROR database connection refused
api: exiting with code 1
::exit-code::0

YouTube Short

Find Docker restart loops.

If a host feels broken, look for restart loops first. This filter shows only containers in restarting state.

experiments

A/B tests to run

Metric: save_rate

A: Restart loops hide in plain sight.

B: Before reading logs, find what is restarting.