docker / docker/cli

`docker pull` really needs a `--try-once` option

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#4,590 9 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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kind/feature status/0-triage
Dominant language
Go
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
1d 15h
Merged PRs (30d)
43

Description

Description

When running a docker in a bandwidth constrained environment, running a docker pull just runs forever until it succeeds or the server goes away, there's no configurable way to make it fail after the first attempt.

This is especially problematic when a custom process is controlling docker, it has no ability to control how many times to retry the pull.

When using docker-py for example, a pull request just locks the thread forever until the pull either succeeds or the server goes away.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing how the Docker CLI handles retries during docker pull and how the requested behavior affects callers such as docker-py. Define the first-attempt failure behavior for a new --try-once option, then add coverage showing that docker pull stops retrying and reports failure after that attempt.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
docker, go
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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