Restart policy unless-stopped no longer working (since 4.42.0)

[simonberger]

Description

I had several issues since 4.42.0 which has been sorted now. Since the start of testing the versions the policy unless-stopped does no longer work in all our services and this is still the case in 4.44.2.
I wondered why I cannot find any report of this issue and revisited my setup, but it is the same on all containers with different configurations. Is it working for others?

I changed some to always which is still working, but we still want the possibility to manually shut down others.

Reproduce

1. Run a container with restart: unless-stopped
2. Shutdown Docker
3. Start again - container is stopped

Expected behavior

No response

docker version

Client:
 Version:           28.3.2
 API version:       1.51
 Go version:        go1.24.5
 Git commit:        578ccf6
 Built:             Wed Jul  9 16:12:57 2025
 OS/Arch:           darwin/arm64
 Context:           desktop-linux

Server: Docker Desktop 4.44.2 (202017)
 Engine:
  Version:          28.3.2
  API version:      1.51 (minimum version 1.24)
  Go version:       go1.24.5
  Git commit:       e77ff99
  Built:            Wed Jul  9 16:13:56 2025
  OS/Arch:          linux/arm64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          1.7.27
  GitCommit:        05044ec0a9a75232cad458027ca83437aae3f4da
 runc:
  Version:          1.2.5
  GitCommit:        v1.2.5-0-g59923ef
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

docker info

Client:
 Version:    28.3.2
 Context:    desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.9.11
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-ai
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.26.1-desktop.1
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  cloud: Docker Cloud (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.4.18
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-cloud
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.39.1-desktop.1
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.42
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-debug
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.0
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-desktop
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.29
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init
  mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.13.0
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-mcp
  model: Docker Model Runner (EXPERIMENTAL) (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.36
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-model
  offload: Docker Offload (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.4.18
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-offload
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.18.3
    Path:     /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout
WARNING: Plugin "/Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /Users/user/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev: no such file or directory

Server:
 Containers: 117
  Running: 17
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 100
 Images: 1137
 Server Version: 28.3.2
 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
 Discovered Devices:
  cdi: docker.com/gpu=webgpu
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: 05044ec0a9a75232cad458027ca83437aae3f4da
 runc version: v1.2.5-0-g59923ef
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.10.14-linuxkit
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: aarch64
 CPUs: 10
 Total Memory: 15.6GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: e74a1e7d-7ce3-446c-bdfe-acd096583874
 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/user/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/docker-cli.sock
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

WARNING: DOCKER_INSECURE_NO_IPTABLES_RAW is set

Diagnostics ID

6C233321-53F5-42B6-92CB-A3FCC5FD3B74/20250818103007

Additional Info

No response

[simonberger]

Tested 4.45.0, regression is still in.
From the tag changes the bug had been reproduced? Is this something which will be fixed in the next versions or do we have to find ways to handle this somehow outside of docker for now?

[djs55]

Thanks for the reports. I've got a test build with a potential fix if you'd like to give it a try:

• Intel Mac: https://desktop-stage.docker.com/mac/main/amd64/204267/Docker.dmg
• Apple Silicon Mac: https://desktop-stage.docker.com/mac/main/arm64/204267/Docker.dmg

Let me know how it goes!

[simonberger]

@djs55 thank you for the build
I tested it with several of our services and the unless-stopped policy works great again like before 4.42.0 :)

[chaizeg]

Closing this issue because a fix has been released in Docker Desktop 4.47.0. See the release notes for more details.