Unhelpful error message: exec json: exec: cmd run: exit status 1

[metadatadriven]

What version of hof are you using (hof version)?

$ hof version
exec json: exec: cmd run: exit status 1

hof - the high code framework

Version:     v0.6.9
Commit:      7f04ae5477839ad5907b7fafe7b1052d48782a2c

BuildDate:   2024-06-07T07:06:17Z
GoVersion:   go1.21.10
CueVersion:  0.9.0
OS_Arch:     linux_amd64
ConfigDir:   /home/xxx/.config/hof
CacheDir:    /home/xxx/.cache/hof
Containers:   [ (client) |  (server)]

Author:      Hofstadter, Inc
License:     Apache-2.0
Homepage:    https://hofstadter.io
GitHub:      https://github.com/hofstadter-io/hof

$ go version
go version go1.21.6 linux/amd64

What did you do?

Installed hof on Windows 10 WSL2 following source install instructions

git clone https://github.com/hofstadter-io/hof && cd hof
git checkout v0.6.9
make hof

Then follow the walkthrough steps up to the Generate the code step

What happened?

Executing the hof gen command resulted in an error

$ hof gen ./examples
exec json: exec: cmd run: exit status 1

It does not look like the command actually ran - there was no ./output directory created.

The error message does not contain any meaningful information that I can use to debug and track down where the problem is.

What did you expect to see?

Expect that either the hof gen command should work, or the error message should describe the problem so that the error can be fixed.

[metadatadriven]

Ok, so the cause seems to be that docker was not running!.. when I run Docker Desktop then the hof gen ./examples command runs without error and the ./output directory is created as expected.

Suggest adding Docker dependency to the documentation, also a clearer error message would definitely help:)

[verdverm]

The installation page has a subline about the requirements, though these could be called out better (https://docs.hofstadter.io/install/)

I agree that error message is not helpful.