Docker scout installation folder does not fit on Windows 11

[jkessel]

Hi,

I recently noticed that the manual installation location givene here:
https://github.com/docker/scout-cli?tab=readme-ov-file#cli-plugin-installation

Does not fit for my Windows 11 x64 installation.

Location given is:

%USERPROFILE%\.docker\scout

Real location of 'docker-scout.exe' is:

C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins

Actually it looks like that 'docker-scout.exe' is also available in this path.
However, this location doesn't seem to have an impact on running it from the CLI.

C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\resources\cli-plugins

Would be great, if somebody could check this, please.

[mikeparker]

Hi @jkessel heres the difference between these 3 folders

1. C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\resources\cli-plugins is where the installer unpacks the files to.
2. C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins is where docker desktop puts the official bundled plugins and reads them from. Technical detail: They are actually hard links to the files in (1) (no duplicate disk space used).
3. C:\Users\Mike Parker\.docker\cli-plugins is where you can put your custom CLI plugins which will never be overwritten by desktop installer, and will be used in preference to anything in the other folders.

So if you put the docker-scout.exe in the first location, it will break the hard link with (2) and thus will never be used (as you found)
If you put the docker-scout.exe in the second location, it will be reverted/overwritten by docker desktop when it reinstates the hard link from location (1) (such as updates, installs, resets).
If you put the docker-scout.exe in the third location, it will be kept there forever but you will need to manually keep it up to date.

Let me know if this helps / makes sense.