Can't connect to docker from docker-compose

Question

I installed docker-machine 0.1.0 and docker-compose 1.1.0 on Mac OS 10.8.5.
Docker-machine is running normally and able to connect by docker-machine ssh.

$ docker-machine ls
NAME   ACTIVE   DRIVER       STATE     URL                         SWARM
dev    *        virtualbox   Running   tcp://192.168.99.100:2376

However can't connect from docker-compose.

$ docker-compose up

Couldn't connect to Docker daemon at http+unix://var/run/docker.sock - is it running?

If it's at a non-standard location, specify the URL with the DOCKER_HOST environment variable.

My Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml is here.

Dockerfile

FROM centos:centos7
DOCKER_HOST tcp://192.168.99.100:2376

docker-compose.yml

web:
  build: .

Why can't connect? Any ideas?

Does `docker-machine` run as root? I just came here with the same problem on Ubuntu and it was the permissions on the socket - `sudo` did the trick. — SLD, Mar 17 '15 at 14:49
For those on Linux, you might [just need to be added to the docker group](http://stackoverflow.com/a/33596140/434961). — Batandwa, Mar 02 '16 at 01:29
I had the same issue. You need to restart docker. `sudo service docker restart` or `sudo service docker start` I solved it with this. — OM Bharatiya, May 07 '20 at 17:50
For those using Ubuntu, you should use sudo and you **should not add users to the docker group**. View the comments in the accepted answer: https://askubuntu.com/questions/477551/how-can-i-use-docker-without-sudo — kas, May 31 '20 at 07:32

Alan Thompson · Answer 1 · 2017-09-04T07:56:42.863

Simple solution for me: sudo docker-compose up

UPDATE 2016-3-14: At some point in the docker install process (or docker-compose ?) there is a suggestion and example to add your username to the "docker" group. This allows you to avoid needing "sudo" before all docker commands, like so:

~ > docker run -it ubuntu /bin/bash
root@665d1ea76b8d:/# date
Mon Mar 14 23:43:36 UTC 2016
root@665d1ea76b8d:/# exit
exit
~ >

Look carefully at the output of the install commands (both docker & the 2nd install for docker-compose) and you'll find the necessary step. It is also documented here: https://subosito.com/posts/docker-tips/

Sudo? No!

Tired of typing sudo docker everytime you issue a command? Yeah, there is a way for dealing with that. Although naturally docker is require a root user, we can give a root-equivalent group for docker operations.

You can create a group called docker, then add desired user to that group. After restarting docker service, the user will no need to type sudo each time do docker operations. How it looks like on a shell commands? as a root, here you go:

> sudo groupadd docker
> sudo gpasswd -a username docker
> sudo service docker restart

Done!

UPDATE 2017-3-9

Docker installation instructions have been updated here.

Post-installation steps for Linux

This section contains optional procedures for configuring Linux hosts to work better with Docker.

Manage Docker as a non-root user

The docker daemon binds to a Unix socket instead of a TCP port. By default that Unix socket is owned by the user root and other users can only access it using sudo. The docker daemon always runs as the root user.

If you don’t want to use sudo when you use the docker command, create a Unix group called docker and add users to it. When the docker daemon starts, it makes the ownership of the Unix socket read/writable by the docker group.

To create the docker group and add your user:

# 1. Create the docker group.
$ sudo groupadd docker

# 2. Add your user to the docker group.
$ sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# 3. Log out and log back in so that your group membership is re-evaluated.

# 4. Verify that you can run docker commands without sudo.
$ docker run hello-world

This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints an informational message and exits.

Likewise for some reason sudo is the only way to get it working :O :O :O — Jamie Hutber, Mar 14 '16 at 15:54
Instead of logging out ... you can use command: `newgrp docker` — Thiago Falcao, Nov 06 '17 at 02:35
Re: "Simple solution for me: `sudo docker-compose up`". When I try that, I get: `sudo: docker-compose: command not found` — Mike B, May 07 '20 at 20:54
this works for me. after adding my user to the group `docker` I could run applications. — Lucas Aimaretto, Feb 01 '21 at 14:23

Andy Shinn · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-11T02:48:18.920

103

The Docker machine is running. But you need to export some environment to connect to the Docker machine. By default, the docker CLI client is trying to communicate to the daemon using http+unix://var/run/docker.sock (as shown in the error message).

Export the correct environment variables using eval $(docker-machine env dev) and then try again. You can also just run docker-machine env dev to see the environment variables it will export. Notice that one of them is DOCKER_HOST, just as the error message suggests you may need to set.

edited Dec 11 '15 at 02:48

answered Mar 17 '15 at 22:41

Andy Shinn

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You can put that command (`eval "$(docker-machine env default)"`) in your bin/postactivate to ensure it's always up-to-date. – Dannid Feb 26 '16 at 17:20
1

Where do I find the file bin/postactivate ? – lszrh Mar 17 '16 at 18:37
1

Or you forgot to install docker: ```$ eval $(docker-machine env dev) Command 'docker-machine' not found, but can be installed with: sudo snap install docker``` – R OMS Oct 29 '19 at 02:14

score 71 · Answer 3 · answered May 01 '18 at 10:04

71

If you started docker using sudo , then you should run docker-compose up with sudo Like: sudo docker-compose up

answered May 01 '18 at 10:04

Rohan Seth

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It worked for me when I ran ```sudo docker-compose build``` instead of ```docker-compose build```. – Abu Noman Md Sakib Jun 04 '20 at 14:38

score 64 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 14 '20 at 04:16

64

I solved the issue in Ubuntu 20.0.4 by

sudo chmod 666 /var/run/docker.sock

and then

sudo service docker start && docker-compose up -d

Ref.

answered Sep 14 '20 at 04:16

Mohammad Heydari

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Wrong answer. Do more research. You are giving everyone access to the socket. https://askubuntu.com/questions/477551/how-can-i-use-docker-without-sudo – Benjamin Oct 08 '20 at 02:25
2

@LiveWireBT It's the solution, has solved the problem. Could explain what's the best practice here? – M. Rostami Oct 13 '20 at 12:37
Thank you very much. I was starting to pull out my hair – M4X_ Jan 19 '21 at 21:09
This solved my issue is 666 a bad thing for the socket ? – Olivier JM Jan 21 '21 at 21:38
this solved my issue thanks – Md Atiqul Haque Jan 25 '22 at 09:53

avivamg · Answer 5 · 2020-05-21T15:35:27.327

When you get an Error:

ERROR: Couldn't connect to Docker daemon at http+docker://localhost - is it running?

The Solution would be:

First, try verifying Docker Service is Up and Running as expected on your remote/local machine:sudo service docker status

if Not - run sudo service docker start or sudo systemctl start docker (depends on some linux versions, see Docker get started instructions).
Second, start docker as sudo sudo docker-compose up

score 31 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 02 '17 at 09:32

By default the docker daemon always runs as the root user, therefore you need to prepend sudo to your Docker command(s).

If you don’t want to use sudo when you use the docker command, create a Unix group called docker and add users to it. When the docker daemon starts, it makes the ownership of the Unix socket read/writable by the docker group.

To create the docker group and add your user:

Create the docker group.

$ sudo groupadd docker
Add your user to the docker group.

$ sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
Log out and log back in so that your group membership is re-evaluated.
Verify that you can docker commands without sudo.

$ docker run hello-world

This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints an informational message and exits.

The steps outlined above comes from the official Docker documentation.

Besides that, what I did to fix docker-compose was setting the user executing `docker-compose` as the owner of `/usr/local/bin/docker-compose` and then restart de service — Sam, Apr 15 '19 at 15:03
`group` membership can be refreshed with `su - $USER` to save logging off & on — Stuart Cardall, Jun 05 '19 at 11:50

Aleksei Alefirov · Answer 7 · 2018-03-19T21:17:16.003

sudo systemctl start docker - to start the Docker service.

sudo docker-compose up after that.

I have Fedora 26, and trying to solve the same issue I eventually entered Docker Compose on Fedora Developers' page and then Docker on Fedora Developers' page, which helped me.

Probably, docker service considered by community to start with the system and run in background all the time, but for me it was not so obvious, and that's the reason I can think of why there's no popular answer like this one.

On the Fedora Developers' page there's instruction how to enable Docker to start with the system:

sudo systemctl enable docker

Replace `systemctl` with `launchctl` if you're running on mac. — Rohit Swami, Nov 15 '19 at 10:28

score 12 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 29 '21 at 10:31

12

a quick way to solve this

Just add sudo before your docker command, like


sudo docker-compose up

answered Apr 29 '21 at 10:31

hamidreza nikoonia

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score 9 · Answer 9 · edited Feb 21 '22 at 14:25

9

if you are using linux

try sudo docker-compose up

edited Feb 21 '22 at 14:25

Saeed

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answered Jan 15 '21 at 00:20

Joshua Galit

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score 8 · Answer 10 · answered May 06 '21 at 07:31

8

Run this as a root. sudo docker-compose up --build

answered May 06 '21 at 07:31

S.Kihara

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worked on Ubuntu 20.0 . Thank you – Rahal Kanishka Sep 28 '21 at 14:32

score 7 · Answer 11 · answered Jan 16 '17 at 12:22

If you are on Linux you may not have docker-machine installed since it is only installed by default on Windows and Mac computers.

If so you will need to got to: https://docs.docker.com/machine/install-machine/ to find instructions for how to install it on your version of Linux.

After installing, retry running docker-compose up before trying anything listed above.

Hope this helps someone. This worked for my devilbox installation in Fedora 25.

score 5 · Answer 12 · edited Jul 15 '19 at 08:12

5

while running docker-compose pull - i was getting below error

ERROR: Couldn't connect to Docker daemon at http+docker://localhost

is it running?

solution -

sudo service docker start

issue resolved

edited Jul 15 '19 at 08:12

Android

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answered Jun 20 '19 at 08:55

Sanoj

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score 5 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 09 '20 at 12:15

5

I know it's silly, but in my case I just tried with sudo and it worked like a charm.

in your case, just try: $ sudo docker-compose up

answered Jun 09 '20 at 12:15

Demobilizer

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score 4 · Answer 14 · answered Mar 21 '16 at 16:46

Anyone checked log ?

In my case error message in /var/log/upstart/docker.log was:

Listening for HTTP on unix (/var/run/docker.sock) 
[graphdriver] using prior storage driver "aufs" 
Running modprobe bridge nf_nat failed with message: , error: exit status 1 
Error starting daemon: Error initializing network controller: Error creating default "bridge" network: can't find an address range for interface "docker0"

Worth to mentioned I had vpn turned on, so: $ sudo service openvpn stop $ sudo service docker restart $ docker-compose up|start $ sudo service openvpn start was the solution.

Yeah, this was the case for me too, but in case someone doesn't like this solution, here are some other solutions as well which do not require stopping/restarting the vpn service: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43720339/docker-error-could-not-find-an-available-non-overlapping-ipv4-address-pool-am — aderchox, Aug 04 '20 at 08:35

score 4 · Answer 15 · answered May 29 '18 at 09:16

4

if you are using docker-machine then you have to activate the environment using env variable. incase you are not using docker-machine then run your commands with sudo

answered May 29 '18 at 09:16

Md Ch

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score 4 · Answer 16 · answered Aug 22 '19 at 11:42

4

Apart from adding users to docker group, to avoid typing sudo repetitively, you can also create an alias for docker commands like so:

alias docker-compose="sudo docker-compose"
alias docker="sudo docker"

answered Aug 22 '19 at 11:42

Shanu Gupta

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score 4 · Answer 17 · answered Jul 16 '21 at 10:44

4

There might be privilege issues, Following command work out for me.

sudo chown $USER /var/run/docker.sock

Thanks to Max for solution: https://stackoverflow.com/posts/60282354/revisions

answered Jul 16 '21 at 10:44

chirag sanghvi

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Willie Cheng · Answer 18 · 2022-08-15T00:59:40.590

4

Easy way to fix this issue:
Question:

Solution:

sudo chown $USER /var/run/docker.sock

Answer:

edited Aug 15 '22 at 00:59

answered Aug 09 '22 at 05:29

Willie Cheng

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score 3 · Answer 19 · edited Mar 01 '18 at 11:27

Answer from @srfrnk works for me.

In my situation, I had the next docker-compose.yml file:

  nginx:
    build:
      context: ./
      dockerfile: "./docker/nginx.staging/Dockerfile"
    depends_on:
      - scripts
    environment:
      NGINX_SERVER_NAME: "some.host"
      NGINX_STATIC_CONTENT_OPEN_FILE_CACHE: "off"
      NGINX_ERROR_LOG_LEVEL: debug
      NGINX_BACKEND_HOST: scripts
      NGINX_SERVER_ROOT: /var/www/html
    volumes:
      - ./docker-runtime/drupal/files:/var/www/html/sites/default/files:rw
    ports:
      - 80:80

./docker-runtime owner and group - is root when the other files owner - my user. When I tried to build nginx

Couldn't connect to Docker daemon at http+docker://localunixsocket - is it running?

I added ./docker-runtime to .dockerignore and it is solved my problem.

score 3 · Answer 20 · edited Dec 20 '20 at 15:22

3

1 . sudo service docker stop 
2 . sudo service docker status
3 . sudo service docker start
4 . docker-compose build <app_name\service_name>

edited Dec 20 '20 at 15:22

SCouto

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answered Dec 20 '20 at 14:59

user14860341

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steps 1-3 and then also `docker-compose pull` worked for me. – RustyShackleford Sep 21 '21 at 00:53

score 2 · Answer 21 · answered Jul 19 '17 at 07:11

I've had the same symptoms.

Only diff that it happened only during docker-compose build docker ps worked. Happened with version 2.x as well as 3.x. Restarted docker service, then the machine... Even re-installed docker + docker-compose.

Tried everything but nothing helped.

Finally I tried building the Dockerfile "manually" by using docker build.

Apparently I had a permission issue on a file/folder inside the Docker context. It was trying to read the context when starting the build and failed with a proper error message. However this error message did not propagate to docker-compose which only shows Couldn't connect to Docker daemon at http+unix://var/run/docker.sock - is it running?

Having found that the solution was simply adding the file/folder to the .dockerignore file since it wasn't needed for the build. Another solution might have been to chown or chmod it.

Anyway maybe this could help someone coming across the same issue that really has nothing to do with docker and the misleading error message being displayed.

I had the same problem: file permissions in a mounted volume. In my case I had an SSL cert that was owned by root that had been put in a Docker volume. `chown` / `chmod` fixed it. Terrible error message but they're working on it. See https://github.com/docker/compose/issues/5318 — bcattle, Mar 21 '18 at 18:38

Nayananga Muhandiram · Answer 22 · 2019-03-03T06:55:32.917

$sudo docker-compose up

I did follow the steps as it is in the above answer to add $USER to group docker. i didn't want to add a new group docker because in my docker installation a group named docker automatically created.

Docker CE is installed and running. The docker group is created but no users are added to it. You need to use sudo to run Docker commands. Continue to Linux postinstall to allow non-privileged users to run Docker commands and for other optional configuration steps.

but using docker-compose up didn't work either. It gave the same previous error. So in my case(Ubuntu 18.10) sudo docker-compose up fixed the issue.

ps: @Tiw thanks for the advice.

Maybe it's better put the solution first, and those explaining below it. Also you can make use those buttons on the editor to format your answer better. — Til, Mar 03 '19 at 05:18

score 1 · Answer 23 · answered Apr 24 '19 at 19:17

1

try this:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/docker-compose /usr/bin/docker-compose

answered Apr 24 '19 at 19:17

TBhavnani

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score 1 · Answer 24 · answered May 18 '20 at 07:09

1

I have resolved the issue using following steps

$ sudo service docker status
$ sudo service docker start
$ sudo docker-compose up

now docker-compose up is working

answered May 18 '20 at 07:09

KARTHIKEYAN.A

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score 1 · Answer 25 · answered Jul 09 '20 at 15:17

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logging out then in again helped me. In my case it was fresh install, I created a new user, new group then added the user to the docker group.

exit exit

then ssh into the server again

answered Jul 09 '20 at 15:17

Swelan Auguste

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score 1 · Answer 26 · answered Dec 01 '20 at 02:56

1

WORKING!!
I tried with below commands and its working

service docker restart
docker-compose -f docker_compose.yaml down
docker-compose -f docker_compose.yaml up

answered Dec 01 '20 at 02:56

Nids Barthwal

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Amr Khaled Nowahy · Answer 27 · 2022-04-13T10:51:27.820

1

A Solution that worked with me was to change the image tag to lowercase letters.

change the image tag in docker-compose.yml file to include repository IP and image name in lowercase letters.

e.g : image: 192.168.1.5/imagename:v1

edited Apr 13 '22 at 10:51

answered Mar 16 '22 at 12:22

Amr Khaled Nowahy

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As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Mar 16 '22 at 16:16
_Since I cannot edit at the moment:_ In the docker-compose.yml, one of the fields under a service is called `image`, which tells docker-compose what name to give to the docker image of the service when building. If you put uppercase letters on the `image` field, Docker tells you that it can't connect to the Docker daemon, which is a very misleading message. You can check what the problem actually is by running `sudo service docker status` – Jose Carlos Coutinho Feb 22 '23 at 14:14

score 1 · Answer 28 · answered Aug 02 '22 at 14:15

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sudo dockerd started the docker service in my case, I was using wsl2 in windows.

answered Aug 02 '22 at 14:15

birajad

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score 0 · Answer 29 · answered Nov 27 '18 at 21:38

For me, I started upgrading Docker and cancelled midway. I didn't notice that Docker was not running (if it was, there is an icon at the top nav bar of my Macbook, by the battery remaining, time, etc). Once I launched it, and finished the upgrade, docker-compose up worked again!

score 0 · Answer 30 · answered Jul 24 '19 at 07:29

My setup has got two cases for this error:

__pycache__ files created by root user after I run integration tests inside container are inaccessible for docker (tells you original problem) and docker-compose (tells you about docker host ambiguously);
microk8s blocked my port until I stopped it.

score 0 · Answer 31 · answered Jul 25 '19 at 08:19

0

Try running dockerd or sudo dockerdif required first to start daemon. If you start dockerd with sudo you may want to run docker-compose up with sudo also. otherwise it's fine.

Working solution from https://github.com/docker/compose/issues/4181

answered Jul 25 '19 at 08:19

Gathua Kiragu

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juliangonzalez · Answer 32 · 2020-07-15T01:45:57.163

The following worked for me, I'm not sure what part did the trick:

julian:project$ sudo service docker status
julian:varys$ sudo service docker status                                                                                                                                                                                
● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2020-07-15 01:21:16 UTC; 24min ago
     Docs: https://docs.docker.com
 Main PID: 6762 (dockerd)
    Tasks: 25
   CGroup: /system.slice/docker.service
           └─6762 /usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// --containerd=/run/containerd/containerd.sock

julian:project$ export DOCKER_HOST=unix:///run/containerd/containerd.sock

julian:project$ sudo groupadd docker
groupadd: group 'docker' already exists
julian:project$ sudo gpasswd -a $USER docker
Adding user ubuntu to group docker
julian:project$ newgrp docker

julian:project$ ls -ln /var/run/ | grep docker
drwx------  5   0   0  120 Jul 15 01:10 docker
-rw-r--r--  1   0   0    4 Jul 15 01:10 docker.pid
srw-rw----  1   0 999    0 Jul 15 01:10 docker.sock

julian:project$ sudo rm /var/run/docker.sock                                                                                                                                                                                            
julian:project$ sudo rm /var/run/docker.pid

julian:project$ sudo service docker restart

score 0 · Answer 33 · edited Jan 27 '21 at 14:00

0

Try restarting your docker environment using:

systemctl restart docker

edited Jan 27 '21 at 14:00

4b0

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answered Jan 27 '21 at 13:36

Lagrange

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Mohammad Arif · Answer 34 · 2022-07-21T02:33:45.900

Docker Compose needs privilege access, make sure to provide the one before running the docker-compose command.

You may need to kill the current Docker process and restart the Docker Desktop, then it works most likely.

P.S. I am on MacOS and getting the same error as above after restarting and providing the root access to Docker Desktop (version 4.10.1) application I am able to run the docker compose command successfully as below.

docker-compose up -d --build

Can't connect to docker from docker-compose

34 Answers34

UPDATE 2017-3-9

Docker installation instructions have been updated here.

Post-installation steps for Linux

To create the docker group and add your user:

Linked