1---
2title: "pause"
3description: "The pause command description and usage"
4keywords: "cgroups, container, suspend, SIGSTOP"
5---
6
7# pause
8
9```markdown
10Usage:  docker pause CONTAINER [CONTAINER...]
11
12Pause all processes within one or more containers
13
14Options:
15      --help   Print usage
16```
17
18## Description
19
20The `docker pause` command suspends all processes in the specified containers.
21On Linux, this uses the freezer cgroup. Traditionally, when suspending a process
22the `SIGSTOP` signal is used, which is observable by the process being suspended.
23With the freezer cgroup the process is unaware, and unable to capture,
24that it is being suspended, and subsequently resumed. On Windows, only Hyper-V
25containers can be paused.
26
27See the
28[freezer cgroup documentation](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/cgroup-v1/freezer-subsystem.txt)
29for further details.
30
31## Examples
32
33```bash
34$ docker pause my_container
35```
36
37## Related commands
38
39* [unpause](unpause.md)
40