Docker Desktop for Mac puts zsh configuration in the wrong place

[brandonzylstra]

Description

You might think that a user's zsh configuration belongs in ~/.zshrc, but you would in fact be mistaken.

~/.zshrc is merely one place where some users (probably most users) keep their configuration. It is not wrong to keep one's configuration there, but it's wrong to assume that that's where the configuration is.

Instead of simply making changes to that file, you can look up the location the same way that zsh itself does, using the ZDOTDIR environment variable, using e.g. ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zshrc. If ZDOTDIR is not set, then HOME is the place to look.

https://man.archlinux.org/man/zsh.1#STARTUP/SHUTDOWN_FILES

Reproduce

1. Open Docker Desktop > Settings > General
2. Install zsh completions
3. Open ~/.zshrc and see that the location was assumed.

I only have that file because other tools have had the same bug. I don't know if the behavior is identical in cases where ~/.zshrc doesn't exist.

Expected behavior

I would expect the configuration change to be made to ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zshrc.

docker version

Client:
 Version:           28.4.0
 API version:       1.51
 Go version:        go1.24.7
 Git commit:        d8eb465
 Built:             Wed Sep  3 20:56:26 2025
 OS/Arch:           darwin/arm64
 Context:           desktop-linux

Server: Docker Desktop 4.46.0 (204649)
 Engine:
  Version:          28.4.0
  API version:      1.51 (minimum version 1.24)
  Go version:       go1.24.7
  Git commit:       249d679
  Built:            Wed Sep  3 20:58:53 2025
  OS/Arch:          linux/arm64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          1.7.27
  GitCommit:        05044ec0a9a75232cad458027ca83437aae3f4da
 runc:
  Version:          1.2.5
  GitCommit:        v1.2.5-0-g59923ef
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

docker info

Client:
 Version:    28.4.0
 Context:    desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.9.11
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-ai
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.28.0-desktop.1
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  cloud: Docker Cloud (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.4.27
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-cloud
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.39.4-desktop.1
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.42
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-debug
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.0
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-desktop
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.31
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init
  mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.20.0
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-mcp
  model: Docker Model Runner (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.40
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-model
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.18.3
    Path:     /Users/brandon/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout

Server:
 Containers: 5
  Running: 4
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 1
 Images: 20
 Server Version: 28.4.0
 Storage Driver: overlay2
  Backing Filesystem: extfs
  Supports d_type: true
  Using metacopy: false
  Native Overlay Diff: true
  userxattr: false
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 2
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Discovered Devices:
  cdi: docker.com/gpu=webgpu
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: 05044ec0a9a75232cad458027ca83437aae3f4da
 runc version: v1.2.5-0-g59923ef
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.10.14-linuxkit
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: aarch64
 CPUs: 8
 Total Memory: 7.654GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: 9ea1ca32-cf14-4795-b294-69e9125f82a1
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Labels:
  com.docker.desktop.address=unix:///Users/brandon/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/docker-cli.sock
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

Diagnostics ID

5D879B2C-1342-4E1E-95D1-24EADB0DE39E/20250923220336

Additional Info

No response

[brandonzylstra]

As a closely related bug, the detection of the completions in the FPATH variable apparently does not actually check that variable, but instead looks in the wrong place for the setting in the zsh config and claims that the completions are missing from FPATH simply because it does not detect the expected lines in ~/.zshrc. I conclude this because after removing the erroneous changes to ~/.zshrc and putting them where they belong, Docker Desktop claimed it could not find them:

But when I checked $FPATH myself, I found that /Users/brandon/.docker/completions was the very first item in the list, so it appears that Docker Desktop was not honest in its claim of checking the variable.

[wmluke]

Hi @brandonzylstra, thanks for the reporting this issue. Are you using oh-my-zsh? This could help explain this issue and the related FPATH issue.