Docker container exits immediately with code 0 (Exited (0)) right after docker run -d - why, and how do I keep it running?

Cause: a container lives only as long as its main process (PID 1, the image's ENTRYPOINT/CMD). If that command finishes successfully, or starts a service that forks into the background and returns, the container stops with status 0. That is normal for one-shot commands and for a bare base image like ubuntu or alpine, whose default command is a shell that exits at once when no terminal is attached. It is not an error and nothing is wrong with Docker. Fix (best first): 1. Look at what actually ran: docker logs <container> and docker inspect --format '{{.Config.Entrypoint}} {{.Config.Cmd}}' <container>. 2. Run the real service in the foreground. For daemons that background themselves, use the program's foreground flag (for example nginx -g 'daemon off;', or the equivalent option of your service) instead of starting it as a daemon. 3. Use exec form in the Dockerfile: CMD ["myapp","--serve"] or ENTRYPOINT ["myapp"]. It runs the program directly. A shell-form command runs under a shell, so your app isn't PID 1 and may not get stop signals; in wrapper scripts finish with exec myapp so the app replaces the shell. 4. For interactive use, add -it (docker run -it ubuntu bash) rather than -d. 5. Only for debugging, you can keep a container alive with a long-running command, but don't ship that as the design; the container should run your real workload. 6. Use --restart policies only for services that should come back after crashing, not to mask an immediate exit. Verify: docker ps shows the container as Up after a few seconds and docker logs shows the service output. Sources: https://docs.docker.com/engine/containers/run/ https://docs.docker.com/reference/dockerfile/