Since /run is mounted as tmpfs in regular RHEL 7, that's really weird that the httpd package owns files in there and is installing files in there.  I'm noticing that rpm -ql reports httpd owns /run/httpd and /run/httpd/htcacheclean.

I think you're right, there must be startup scripts that make sure those files are recreated properly in a traditional environment that aren't run in a container.

I agree this is an issue we need some help with. Running the httpd container like the following isn't a good workaround [although this works]:

-bash-4.2# docker run -d -p 8080:80 rht-training:rhel7_httpd /bin/bash -c "mkdir /run/httpd; httpd -D FOREGROUND"

Also to note that containers built on older atomic versions [pre docker-1.4], don't have any issues running on the latest atomic build [2015-02-19 20:26:26  5799825b36]...but they also don't have tmpfs mounted /run either:

-bash-4.2# docker exec -it 77f0c3c187f0 df -h /run
Filesystem                                                                                          Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/docker-253:1-16842786-77f0c3c187f0d969807bd235f58749150ddb35d91186863e3dc8dd137c01021c   10G  303M  9.7G   3% /

/run is non-persistent on RHEL and Fedora too, this isn't container-specific.

In httpd's case, these files are created on boot via 
  /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/httpd.conf
which causes the appropriate /run/httpd and /run/httpd/htcacheclean directories to be created at each boot.  A container start script for httpd will need to replicate this action.

Ok. based on Stephen's comments and a quick chat on irc...I think this will need to be the httpd "hello world":


FROM https://github.com/fedora-cloud/Fedora-Dockerfiles/tree/master/apache

-bash-4.2# docker run -it registry.access.redhat.com/rhel7 /bin/bash

bash-4.2# yum install httpd -y
bash-4.2# echo kc5 > /var/www/html/index.html

Create startup script:

----------------------

bash-4.2# vi /usr/bin/my_httpd_startup.bash


#!/bin/bash
# Make sure we're not confused by old, incompletely-shutdown httpd
# context after restarting the container. httpd won't start correctly
# if it thinks it is already running.
rm -rf /run/httpd/*

# need to create directories per /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/httpd.conf
## d /run/httpd   710 root apache
## d /run/httpd/htcacheclean   700 apache apache

mkdir -p /run/httpd/htcacheclean
chmod 710 /run/httpd
chmod 700 /run/httpd/htcacheclean

chown root:apache /run/httpd
chown apache:apache /run/httpd/htcacheclean

exec /usr/sbin/apachectl -D FOREGROUND

--------------------

bash-4.2# chmod 755 /usr/bin/my_httpd_startup.bash


-bash-4.2# docker run -p 8080:80 -d mytest /usr/bin/my_httpd_startup.bash
8518f03a28782745c4148667b1a936e7a052284231bde4c16d82b4ce3a0d0f72
-bash-4.2# docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                  NAMES
8518f03a2878        mytest:latest       "/usr/bin/my_httpd_s   3 seconds ago       Up 2 seconds        0.0.0.0:8080->80/tcp   goofy_tesla         
-bash-4.2# curl localhost:8080
kc5

-bash-4.2# docker stop 8518f03a2878
8518f03a2878

NOTE: docker stop will now take 10 sec, the default time before docker sends the sigkill since our wrapper script can't handle the sigterm.

You could also work with systemd in the container.  If you build an image using a docker file, this should work correctly also.

The /run patch will copy the content under /run on the image to /run on the image.