docs/engine/reference/commandline/pause.md

description	keywords	menu	title
The pause command description and usage	cgroups, container, suspend, SIGSTOP	main parent smn_cli	pause

pause

Usage:  docker pause CONTAINER [CONTAINER...]

Pause all processes within one or more containers

Options:
      --help   Print usage

The docker pause command uses the cgroups freezer to suspend all processes in a container. Traditionally, when suspending a process the SIGSTOP signal is used, which is observable by the process being suspended. With the cgroups freezer the process is unaware, and unable to capture, that it is being suspended, and subsequently resumed.

See the cgroups freezer documentation for further details.