CLI Machines Docker Start

`ed machines docker start`

Starts a stopped container.

ed machines docker start [--json] <machine> <container>...

Arguments

Name	Type / values	Default	What it does
`<machine>`	machine name, ssh alias, id, or any unambiguous prefix	required	Which machine to act on.
`<container>...`	one or more container names or ids	at least one required	Which containers to start. Docker is given all of them in one call.

Options

Name	Type / values	Default	What it does
`--json`	flag	off	Emit JSON on stdout instead of the one-line confirmation.
`--help`, `-h`	flag	off	Print the help for this command on stdout and exit 0.

Human output is one line, start <container>.

`--json` shape

{
  "action": "start",
  "containers": [
    "open-webui"
  ],
  "machine": "Asus TUF 7"
}

machine is the machine's display name as Edith stores it, not what you typed. containers echoes back exactly what you typed, in the order you typed it, so passing a short id gives you a short id here. Naming no container at all exits 1 with name at least one container, before the machine is dialled.

Examples

ed machines tuf docker start open-webui
ed machines tuf docker start b556d7fef23e --json
ed machines tuf docker start api postgres redis

Behaviour notes

Runs docker start <container>... with a 120 second ceiling, one call however many containers are named. A docker that refuses exits 1, with docker's own stderr as the hint:

$ ed machines tuf docker start nosuch-container
error: docker start failed on Asus TUF 7
hint: Error response from daemon: No such container: nosuch-container
failed to start containers: nosuch-container

Naming several containers is all or nothing in the exit code only. Docker starts the ones it can and reports the rest on stderr, so a call that names three and fails on one exits 1 having started the other two; the hint names which one failed. Re-read the states with ed machines docker ps --all rather than assuming nothing happened.

A container whose published port is already taken by something else is the case worth knowing about, because it does not always fail. Docker sometimes refuses outright, with Bind for 127.0.0.1:6379 failed: port is already allocated, and sometimes exits 0 having left the container running with no network attached and no ports published at all. ps reports that container as running with an empty ports array, so a group that looks healthy can still have a service nothing can reach. ed machines docker inspect <container> settles it: an empty NetworkSettings.Networks is a container that came up without its network.

This is the Docker window's start button, running the same command, and naming several containers is what the play button on a group header does. That button names the group's stopped containers, and appears whenever at least one of them is stopped, so a group with some containers up and some down shows a play button and a stop button side by side. Paused containers are never named here, because docker start refuses them and one refusal fails the whole call.