docker / docker/cli

Fallback platforms feature

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#7,080 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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

Description

Many container images I uses are available for multiple platforms, most notably linux/amd64 and linux/arm64. On a current macbook any docker image pull will pull the linux/arm64 image - if that exists.

If that does not exist, pulling will fail with an error like:

no matching manifest for linux/arm64/v8 in the manifest list entries

I have enabled Rosetta on the macbook, will allows me to run linux/amd64 images. In almost all cases running a non-native linux/amd64 image is preferable over not being able to run the image at all.

So, if a normal image pull fails because there is not linux/arm64 image, then I will always have to manually add --platform linux/amd64 to the command.

It would be great if there was a optional/configurable list of fallback platforms that would be tried if the native platform isn't available.

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Research direction

The issue names no files, tests, or entry points. Start by tracing Docker CLI image-pull platform selection and the existing --platform handling, then determine where an optional fallback list belongs. Done means a configurable ordered list is tried when the native platform has no matching manifest, with tests covering fallback selection and failure.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
docker, go
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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