What purpose does using exec in docker entrypoint scripts serve?

Question

For example in the redis official image:

https://github.com/docker-library/redis/blob/master/2.8/docker-entrypoint.sh

#!/bin/bash
set -e

if [ \"$1\"         


        

Answer 1

As @Peter Lyons says, using exec will replace the parent process, rather than have two processes running.

This is important in Docker for signals to be proxied correctly. For example, if Redis was started without exec, it will not receive a SIGTERM upon docker stop and will not get a chance to shutdown cleanly. In some cases, this can lead to data loss or zombie processes.

If you do start child processes (i.e. don't use exec), the parent process becomes responsible for handling and forwarding signals as appropriate. This is one of the reasons it's best to use supervisord or similar when running multiple processes in a container, as it will forward signals appropriately.