This is another of my raw notes

what prompted this post?

docker ps
"Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///Users/shirlim/.docker/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?"

investigation which docker is running

ls /Applications | grep -i -E “docker|orbstack” Docker.app

check for colima

colima is a free opensource tool that runs Docker engine

which colima
colima not found

list the docker contexts in my mac

docker context ls
NAME              DESCRIPTION                               DOCKER ENDPOINT                                 ERROR
default           Current DOCKER_HOST based configuration   unix:///var/run/docker.sock
desktop-linux *   Docker Desktop                            unix:///Users/shirlim/.docker/run/docker.sock
rancher-desktop   Rancher Desktop moby context              unix:///Users/shirlim/.rd/docker.sock

if I’m using linux then it would be this one

default *   Current DOCKER_HOST based configuration   unix:///var/run/docker.sock

# to enabled it, run this 
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker    # start automatically at boot

Solution : start docker (mac)

open -a Docker

open, -a means application, Docker

why

When Docker Desktop starts, it boots its hidden Linux VM and the Docker engine inside it. It also creates the socket file at ~/.docker/run/docker.sock.

verify by calling

docker ps