moby: Cannot stop container XXXXXXXXXXXX: [2] Container does not exist: container destroyed

Docker fails to stop a container:

root@haswell:/home/supervisor# docker ps | grep e16
e16c5c80ab4e        ernetas/local:latest   "/sbin/my_init -- /b   10 days ago         Up 3 minutes                            romantic_kirch      
root@haswell:/home/supervisor# docker stop e16c5c80ab4e
Error response from daemon: Cannot stop container e16c5c80ab4e: [2] Container does not exist: container destroyed
FATA[0000] Error: failed to stop one or more containers 
root@haswell:/home/supervisor#

Docker version and info:

supervisor@haswell:~$ sudo docker -D info
Containers: 8
Images: 40
Storage Driver: aufs
 Root Dir: /storage2/docker/aufs
 Backing Filesystem: extfs
 Dirs: 56
 Dirperm1 Supported: false
Execution Driver: native-0.2
Kernel Version: 3.13.0-45-generic
Operating System: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
CPUs: 4
Total Memory: 31.35 GiB
Name: haswell
ID: T2LH:VCTV:CZGW:WBD6:7FQ6:TNLY:BEB4:ATGH:CBZZ:FEPU:JTRY:XNVQ
Debug mode (server): false
Debug mode (client): true
Fds: 35
Goroutines: 73
System Time: Fri Apr 24 11:45:27 EEST 2015
EventsListeners: 0
Init SHA1: 9145575052383dbf64cede3bac278606472e027c
Init Path: /usr/bin/docker
Docker Root Dir: /storage2/docker
supervisor@haswell:~$ sudo docker -D version
Client version: 1.6.0
Client API version: 1.18
Go version (client): go1.4.2
Git commit (client): 4749651
OS/Arch (client): linux/amd64
Server version: 1.6.0
Server API version: 1.18
Go version (server): go1.4.2
Git commit (server): 4749651
OS/Arch (server): linux/amd64
supervisor@haswell:~$

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 9 years ago
Reactions: 2
Comments: 121 (60 by maintainers)

Commits related to this issue

Ignore failure to kill container in test tear down Docker 1.6 sometimes fails to kill a container because it disappears. https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/12738 Ignore these failures. — committed to spotify/docker-client by davidxia 9 years ago
Workaround Docker's "container destroyed" When a container exists right around when Docker was attempting to restart it, it might get into an awkward state that makes it impossible to restart. Resolv... — committed to krallin/captain-comeback by krallin 8 years ago
Workaround Docker's "container destroyed" When a container exists right around when Docker was attempting to restart it, it might get into an awkward state that makes it impossible to restart. Resolv... — committed to krallin/captain-comeback by krallin 8 years ago

Most upvoted comments

We had the same problem here today. The comment of @mpalmer did help a lot but not completely. We found out that you can do the following:

lscgroup | grep  <ID> | xargs cgdelete
docker restart <ID>
docker kill <ID>
docker rm <ID>

SirUrban on Apr 13, 2016

If you’ve got a container that just won’t die after you docker rm -f it, you can force-nuke it with

lscgroup | grep <shortID> | xargs cgdelete

Where <shortID> is the blob of hex that identifies the container in docker ps.

It’s not a fix, but it’s an effective workaround.

mpalmer on Feb 29, 2016

Did not work for us. The

lscgroup | grep <ID> | xargs cgdelete

command did delete the entries form lscgroup, but the container ist still in docker ps and all the 3 steps from @SirUrban did just fail as usual Container does not exist: container destroyed.

Docker engine restart fixes the problem for us, but this is not an acceptable workaround.

Just as an addition to the cases before. We triggered it a couple of times with using docker-compose up ..." and then killed it with double CTRL-C.

for the record:

$ docker kill 69ee03602684
Failed to kill container (69ee03602684): Error response from daemon: Cannot kill container 69ee03602684: [2] Container does not exist: container destroyed

$ lscgroup | grep 69ee03602684
cpuset:/docker/69ee036026840507c51897cb29d95367cdd3701db68d2338aa1f1d8a2ee67564
cpu:/docker/69ee036026840507c51897cb29d95367cdd3701db68d2338aa1f1d8a2ee67564
cpuacct:/docker/69ee036026840507c51897cb29d95367cdd3701db68d2338aa1f1d8a2ee67564
memory:/docker/69ee036026840507c51897cb29d95367cdd3701db68d2338aa1f1d8a2ee67564
devices:/docker/69ee036026840507c51897cb29d95367cdd3701db68d2338aa1f1d8a2ee67564
freezer:/docker/69ee036026840507c51897cb29d95367cdd3701db68d2338aa1f1d8a2ee67564
blkio:/docker/69ee036026840507c51897cb29d95367cdd3701db68d2338aa1f1d8a2ee67564
perf_event:/docker/69ee036026840507c51897cb29d95367cdd3701db68d2338aa1f1d8a2ee67564
hugetlb:/docker/69ee036026840507c51897cb29d95367cdd3701db68d2338aa1f1d8a2ee67564

# lscgroup | grep 69ee03602684 | xargs cgdelete

# lscgroup | grep 69ee03602684

# docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                 COMMAND                   CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                         NAMES
69ee03602684        sessiondb_sink        "start-flume"             2 days ago          Up 2 days                                         sessiondb_sink_1

# docker restart 69ee03602684
Failed to kill container (69ee03602684): Error response from daemon: Cannot restart container 69ee03602684: [2] Container does not exist: container destroyed

rwrnet on Apr 23, 2016

@thaJeztah Ok fine.

suchakra012 on Oct 6, 2016

@suchakra012 please don’t comment on closed issues with unrelated questions; if you suspect there’s a bug, open a new issue; for questions about running docker, either https://forums.docker.com, the #docker IRC channel, or StackOverflow are probably better

thaJeztah on Oct 6, 2016

I think this steps will fix the ‘Destroyed Container’ 1. Try to stop all the container in the host. ( kill new process in containers) 2. Stop the docker daemon, 3. kill all the processes escaped from container which PPID is 1. 4. start your docker daemon.

gukai on Dec 23, 2015