Nonexistent docker desktop subcommands exit 0

[phette23]

Description

Running a nonexistent docker desktop subcommand exits successfully. This makes it difficult to feature test the docker desktop command.

docker desktop nonexistentcommand && echo nonexistentcommand succeeded

It's arguable if this should be the behavior with ``docker desktop nonexistentcommand --helpbut it definitely feels off when a help flag isn't present. I am specifically thinking about putting adocker desktop update` command in my dotfiles, but I'm not sure how to test for the command's existence in the currently installed version of docker.

Apologies if this is more an issue for docker/for-mac, happy to move it if so.

Reproduce

docker desktop nonexistentcommand && echo nonexistentcommand succeeded

Expected behavior

Nothing will be echoed and docker will exit with a non-zero status.

docker version

Client:
 Version:           27.5.1
 API version:       1.47
 Go version:        go1.22.11
 Git commit:        9f9e405
 Built:             Wed Jan 22 13:37:19 2025
 OS/Arch:           darwin/arm64
 Context:           desktop-linux

Server: Docker Desktop 4.38.0 (181591)
 Engine:
  Version:          27.5.1
  API version:      1.47 (minimum version 1.24)
  Go version:       go1.22.11
  Git commit:       4c9b3b0
  Built:            Wed Jan 22 13:41:25 2025
  OS/Arch:          linux/arm64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          1.7.25
  GitCommit:        bcc810d6b9066471b0b6fa75f557a15a1cbf31bb
 runc:
  Version:          1.1.12
  GitCommit:        v1.1.12-0-g51d5e946
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

docker info

Client:
 Version:    27.5.1
 Context:    desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Ask Gordon - Docker Agent (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.7.3
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-ai
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.20.1-desktop.2
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.32.4-desktop.1
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.38
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-debug
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Beta) (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.4
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-desktop
  dev: Docker Dev Environments (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.2
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.27
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension
  feedback: Provide feedback, right in your terminal! (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.0.5
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-feedback
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.16.1
    Path:     /Users/ephetteplace/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout

Server:
 Containers: 6
  Running: 0
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 6
 Images: 9
 Server Version: 27.5.1
 Storage Driver: overlay2
  Backing Filesystem: extfs
  Supports d_type: true
  Using metacopy: false
  Native Overlay Diff: true
  userxattr: false
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 2
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: bcc810d6b9066471b0b6fa75f557a15a1cbf31bb
 runc version: v1.1.12-0-g51d5e946
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: unconfined
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.12.5-linuxkit
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: aarch64
 CPUs: 8
 Total Memory: 13.63GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: c6e523d2-2ab4-4dfe-b227-2cae384a3492
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Labels:
  com.docker.desktop.address=unix:///Users/ephetteplace/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/docker-cli.sock
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

Additional Info

No response

[thaJeztah]

Thanks for reporting; I can confirm this doesn't work correctly.

The docker desktop subcommand is implemented as a CLI plugin (similar to docker compose and docker buildx), so I had to double-check if the problem was in the CLI (which executes the cli plugins), or the docker desktop CLI plugin itself;

Testing the same scenario with docker buildx (redirecting STDOUT to only get the error message);

docker buildx nonexistentcommand > /dev/null && echo nonexistentcommand succeeded
ERROR: unknown command: "nonexistentcommand"

Same for compose;

docker compose nonexistentcommand > /dev/null && echo nonexistentcommand succeeded
unknown docker command: "compose nonexistentcommand"

So this appears to be a problem with the docker desktop CLI plugin; let me check if I can find the right people for that (it's not currently open-source, and not sure if they have a dedicated issue tracker)