DevOps · Flashcard

What signal does Kubernetes send to a container's main process when a Pod is being terminated?

  • ASIGTERM — the standard termination signal sent to PID 1 inside the container, giving the process a chance to shut down gracefully
  • BSIGKILL — the immediate termination signal sent to PID 1 inside the container, stopping the process without any cleanup window
  • CSIGINT — the interrupt signal sent to PID 1 inside the container, equivalent to a Ctrl+C initiated by the kubelet process
  • DSIGHUP — the hangup signal sent to PID 1 inside the container, indicating the controlling terminal session has ended

Why this is the answer

Kubernetes sends SIGTERM, not SIGKILL. SIGKILL is only used as a last resort after the grace period expires. The signal goes to PID 1 in the container — if that's a shell wrapper instead of your app, the app never receives it.

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