What is the purpose of the –init flag in docker run and what problem does it solve?

Question

Docker Fundamentals — Hard

What is the purpose of the –init flag in docker run and what problem does it solve?

Accepted Answer

The purpose of the --init flag in docker run is to run a minimal init process (tini) as PID 1 inside the container. This solves the problem of PID 1 applications that don't handle signals or zombie reaping correctly.