lifecycle: Add a list outlining the usual flow

wking · wking · commit 8dae07a7b2ed · 2015-08-29T22:16:33.000-07:00
Signed-off-by: W. Trevor King &lt;wking@tremily.us&gt;
diff --git a/lifecycle.md b/lifecycle.md
@@ -2,6 +2,25 @@
 
 ## Lifecycle
 
+A typical lifecyle progresses like this:
+
+1. There is no container or running application
+2. A user tells the runtime to [create](#create) a container
+3. The runtime creates the container
+4. A user tells the runtime to [start](#start-process) an application
+5. The runtime executes any [pre-start hooks](runtime.md#pre-start)
+6. The runtime executes the application
+7. The application is running
+8. A user tells the runtime to [stop](#stop) an application
+9. The runtime sends a termination signal to the application
+10. The application exits
+11. The runtime executes any [post-stop hooks](runtime.md#post-stop)
+12. The runtime removes the container
+
+With steps 8 and 9, the user is explicitly stopping the application
+(via the runtime), but it's also possible that the application could
+exit for other reasons.  In that case we skip directly from 7 to 10.
+
 ### Create
 
 Creates the container: file system, namespaces, cgroups, capabilities.
