A service update using the stop-first update policy does not respect the existing task’s stop grace period when it exceeds one minute.

[ximarx]

Description

When a service definition specifies a stop_grace_period longer than one minute and uses a stop-first update order, the stop-first semantics are violated if the existing task takes more than one minute to stop. The new task is started after no more than a one-minute delay.

Expected behavior

stop_grace_period is respected and "stop-first" semantics is respected.

Steps to reproduce

stack.yml

version: '3.6'
services:
  waiting-service:
    image: alpine
    stop_grace_period: 90s
    deploy:
      mode: replicated
      replicas: 1
      update_config:
        order: stop-first
    entrypoint: ash
    command:
      - -c
      - |
        trap 'echo "received TERM"' TERM
        echo "Up"
        while true; do echo "Still up"; sleep 10; done

docker stack deploy -c stack.yml testconv
Since --detach=false was not specified, tasks will be created in the background.
In a future release, --detach=false will become the default.
Creating network testconv_default
Creating service testconv_waiting-service

date; docker service update --force --detach=false testconv_waiting-service; date
mer 29 lug 2026 19:52:26 CEST
testconv_waiting-service
overall progress: 1 out of 1 tasks
1/1: running   [==================================================>]
verify: Service testconv_waiting-service converged
mer 29 lug 2026 19:53:32 CEST

docker service ls
ID             NAME                       MODE         REPLICAS   IMAGE           PORTS
iixvooki30e1   testconv_waiting-service   replicated   2/1        alpine:latest


docker service logs -t testconv_waiting-service
2026-07-29T17:51:54.290743926Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Up
2026-07-29T17:51:54.290766426Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:52:04.293327125Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:52:14.296006296Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:52:24.297436301Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:52:34.301911917Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | received TERM
2026-07-29T17:52:34.301936792Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:52:44.302612255Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:52:54.303608509Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:53:04.304309375Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:53:14.304741588Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:53:24.306502551Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:53:27.190412177Z testconv_waiting-service.1.wjnandmyd9nt@docker-desktop    | Up
2026-07-29T17:53:27.190482552Z testconv_waiting-service.1.wjnandmyd9nt@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:53:34.308361792Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:53:37.194422251Z testconv_waiting-service.1.wjnandmyd9nt@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:53:44.309728963Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:53:47.195115131Z testconv_waiting-service.1.wjnandmyd9nt@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:53:54.311676926Z testconv_waiting-service.1.7zsxoyo6rp6p@docker-desktop    | Still up
2026-07-29T17:53:57.199606844Z testconv_waiting-service.1.wjnandmyd9nt@docker-desktop    | Still up

Considerations

Looking at the source code (I'm not familiar with it or with Go, so apologies if my hypothesis is incorrect), the root cause seems to be a mismatch between stop_grace_period and the TaskTimeout value used by the updater orchestrator.

In manager/orchestrator/restart/restart.go, TaskTimeout is unconditionally hardcoded to one minute:

const defaultOldTaskTimeout = time.Minute

func NewSupervisor(...) *Supervisor {
    return &Supervisor{
        TaskTimeout: defaultOldTaskTimeout,
    }
}

In stop-first mode, the updater calls DelayStart with the old task and waitStop=true. Inside DelayStart, a timer is created using r.TaskTimeout, rather than stop_grace_period. As a result, the manager waits at most one minute for the old task to stop, then proceeds to start the new one regardless.

stop_grace_period is never read by the restart supervisor. It is only passed to the agent side and therefore has no effect on how long the Swarm manager waits at the orchestration level.

The practical impact is that, when stop_grace_period is greater than one minute, the manager times out and creates the new container while the old one is still running. As a result, the old and new containers coexist, violating the stop-first semantics.

I also posted a similar comment on the existing issue moby/moby#41380. However, since the original issue has received little attention, I’m trying to determine whether the SwarmKit repository would be a more appropriate place to report it.

Engine version

 Engine:
  Version:          29.6.2
  API version:      1.55 (minimum version 1.40)
  Go version:       go1.26.5
  Git commit:       3d80467
  Built:            Thu Jul 16 16:13:03 2026
  OS/Arch:          linux/arm64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v2.2.5
  GitCommit:        e53c7c1516c3b2bff98eb76f1f4117477e6f4e66
 runc:
  Version:          1.3.6
  GitCommit:        v1.3.6-0-g491b69ba
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0