Operating Containers: Healthchecks, Resource Limits, Restart Policies, and Env Config

A container that runs is not the same as a container that behaves. In development, "it started" is enough. In production you want more: the container should know when it is broken, stay within a memory and CPU budget, come back on its own after a crash, and get its config cleanly without secrets baked into the image. This post adds all four to a real stack, with commands and output captured on a live Docker Engine. Tip Key takeaways A healthcheck lets Docker report a container as healthy or unhealthy, and Compose can hold a dependent back until its dependency is healthy.