I'm fairly new to running Docker on a Mac and currently have around seven containers. Docker Desktop seems to receive updates pretty often, which is great, but I'm wondering whether the application itself can update automatically. I already use Watchtower to update my containers and would like to know if there's a similar option for Docker Desktop.
4 Answers
How are you installing and running Docker on your Mac? If you use Homebrew, you can periodically run its update and upgrade commands to keep installed packages and applications current. Colima and Lima are also alternatives if you’re using Docker through a lightweight virtual machine instead of Docker Desktop.
I’d be cautious about automatically updating containers. Using the latest tag or letting a tool redeploy containers can introduce unexpected changes or break something. Pinning images to exact versions gives you more consistent deployments. If an image follows semantic versioning well, you could instead choose whether to allow patch, minor, or major updates.
I use Portainer as a container manager. When an update is available, I pull the newer image and recreate the container manually, which gives me a chance to check the changes before switching over.
For managing updates, you could try a container-management tool such as Dockhand, Arcane, Dockage, or Portainer. These can make it easier to pull newer images and recreate containers when you’re ready, without blindly updating everything.
That approach is useful for keeping the tooling current, but I’d still review upgrades before applying them if the containers are important.