docker / docker/cli

Unclear what a type is when using docker inspect

Open Beginner friendly
#6,047 4 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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area/ux kind/enhancement
Dominant language
Go
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
1d 15h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Description

The documentation for --type just says Return JSON for specified type. Could we improve this to include all the types or at least some of the commonly used ones?

$ docker -v
Docker version 28.1.1, build 4eba377
$ docker inspect --help
Usage:  docker inspect [OPTIONS] NAME|ID [NAME|ID...]

Return low-level information on Docker objects

Options:
  -f, --format string   Format output using a custom template:
                        'json':             Print in JSON format
                        'TEMPLATE':         Print output using the given Go template.
                        Refer to https://docs.docker.com/go/formatting/ for more information about formatting output with templates
  -s, --size            Display total file sizes if the type is container
      --type string     Return JSON for specified type

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

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  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 with docker inspect --help and the existing --type option text. Identify the supported object types and update the help wording to list all or commonly used types. Done means the help output makes it clear which values can be passed to --type.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
docker
Domain
cli, documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
78/100

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