Run an init process (PID 1) inside a Docker Compose container with init: true to forward signals and reap zombies
domain: docs.docker.com/reference/compose-file/services/#init · 5 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Add `init: true` to a service so Compose runs an init process (tini/dumb-init on Linux) as PID 1 inside the container.
The init process forwards signals (SIGTERM/SIGINT) from the host to the main application process, which is otherwise not always delivered to PID 1 in containers.
It reaps orphaned zombie child processes left by the app, preventing PID exhaustion over long-running service life.
Run `docker compose up -d`; verify with `docker exec <container> ps` that PID 1 is the init binary rather than your app.
init only helps apps that tolerate signals and spawn children; a process that ignores SIGTERM still won't shut down cleanly (pair with stop_signal/stop_grace_period).
The init binary is platform-specific; on Docker Desktop the behavior/availability can differ from Linux hosts.
`init: true` adds a tiny process to the container — negligible overhead, intended as the safe default for Node/Python/Java images that don't handle PID 1 reaping themselves.
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