Settings and Updates

Settings and updates

⌘, opens Settings.

Container Tool

Which container binary the app uses. Automatic checks the standard install location, then Homebrew (/opt/homebrew/bin), then the path reported by the running services. Set a path only to override — for a development build, say.

Services

The status of container's background services, and a Restart button.

Restarting stops every running container and machine, then starts the services again. It's what you want after an update, or after changing something the services only read at startup — the DNS domain, for instance.

You can also start and stop from the status footer in the main window's sidebar.

Local DNS

Reach containers from your Mac by name. See Networking and DNS for what it does, what it doesn't, and the two caveats.

Lists

How often the lists refresh — 2, 5, 10 or 30 seconds. Read live, so a change takes effect on the next tick rather than needing a restart.

Menu Bar

The menu bar item shows subsystem status and gives quick access to running machines and stack web UIs. With it enabled, the app keeps running after you close the last window and the Dock icon hides until you open one again.

Updates

Both the app and the container tool are checked against their GitHub releases.

ContainerManager	Shows the installed version, and offers Get Update… when there's a newer one. There's no self-update; the button opens the release page.
Apple container	Shows the installed version and any newer one. Update… downloads the official installer and runs it.
Check automatically	Never, on launch, daily, or weekly. One automatic check per launch at most.
Check Now	Reports on both, whether or not there's anything to do.

A pending container update also appears as a badge in the sidebar footer.

What updating container does

The app stops the services so the installer can replace files cleanly, runs the official .pkg (so macOS asks for your password), then restarts the services only if they were running to begin with — if you had them stopped, they stay stopped.

The minimum supported version is 1.2.0, the oldest these client libraries have been verified against. Older versions failed obscurely over XPC; now you're told to update instead. Exporting a container's filesystem needs 1.2.1.

Where the app keeps things

~/Library/Application Support/ContainerManager/
    Builds/             # saved Dockerfiles and their build contexts
    StackTemplates/     # imported .containerstack templates
    StackDefinitions/   # what each stack was built from, for Re-create
    StackLogs/          # how each stack was built

StackDefinitions and StackLogs are owner-only (0700) and a stack's files are deleted with it. A definition can hold values you entered on a create form, including passwords — the same values are already visible in plain text in the containers' own configuration (container inspect), so it exposes nothing new while the stack exists, but it is why they're cleaned up with it.

Volume labels, and stacks' display names and icons, are stored in the app's preferences.