Phusion/baseimage-docker is a minimal Ubuntu-based Docker base image that includes a proper init system for managing multiple services and processes inside a single container. It provides a lightweight init process that reaps zombie processes, forwards stop signals for graceful shutdown, and supervises daemons through runit, restarting them automatically if they crash.
The image includes a preconfigured OpenSSH server restricted to public-key authentication for secure shell access to running containers, along with a cron daemon for scheduling recurring tasks. It supports ordered startup script execution, centralized environment variable injection that all services inherit, and package installation with automatic cache cleanup to minimize final image size. Additional utilities enable automated SSH login, container exec access, and one-shot command execution with full service initialization.
The base image forwards system logs to the console for observability, captures kernel and service messages, and provides user identity command execution without sudo. It is designed for running multiple daemons simultaneously within a single container, with clean service shutdown on stop signals and orphaned process reaping to prevent zombie accumulation.