You can't directly "open" a closed Docker container. Once a container is stopped, it's essentially in a paused state, and its processes are no longer running. However, you can restart it to bring it back to life.
Here's how to restart a closed Docker container:
- Identify the container ID: You can use the
docker ps -a
command to list all containers, including stopped ones. The output will show the container ID, which is a unique identifier for each container. - Restart the container: Use the
docker start <container_id>
command, replacing<container_id>
with the actual container ID you found in the previous step.
For example:
docker start 1234567890abcdef
This command will restart the container with the ID 1234567890abcdef
. Once the container is restarted, it will be in a running state, and you can access its services or applications.
Practical Insights:
- You can also restart a container by name using the
docker start <container_name>
command. - If you want to start a container in the background, use the
-d
flag with thedocker start
command.
Example:
docker start -d my_web_app
This will restart the container named my_web_app
in the background.
Note: If you have made changes to the container's configuration or image, you may need to restart it to apply those changes.