Rancher installed to user's Applications directory create symlinks to wrong folder

[david-hodgson-at-sky]

Actual Behavior

docker commands throw warnings immediately after clean install.

Steps to Reproduce

Install Rancher desktop to user's /Applications folder start Rancher - no errors docker is installed and seems to be working.

Result

docker system info throws warnings

WARNING: Plugin "/Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev: no such file or directory
WARNING: Plugin "/Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension: no such file or directory
WARNING: Plugin "/Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init: no such file or directory
WARNING: Plugin "/Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom: no such file or directory
WARNING: Plugin "/Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan: no such file or directory
WARNING: Plugin "/Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout: no such file or directory

% ls -lh /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-*  
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 USERID  staff    37B  5 Jul 16:05 /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx -> /Users/USERID/.rd/bin/docker-buildx
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 USERID  staff    38B  5 Jul 16:05 /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose -> /Users/USERID/.rd/bin/docker-compose
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 USERID  staff    66B  5 Jul 15:24 /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev -> /Applications/Docker.app/Contents/Resources/cli-plugins/docker-dev
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 USERID  staff    72B  5 Jul 15:24 /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension -> /Applications/Docker.app/Contents/Resources/cli-plugins/docker-extension
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 USERID  staff    67B  5 Jul 15:24 /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init -> /Applications/Docker.app/Contents/Resources/cli-plugins/docker-init
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 USERID  staff    67B  5 Jul 15:24 /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom -> /Applications/Docker.app/Contents/Resources/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 USERID  staff    67B  5 Jul 15:24 /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan -> /Applications/Docker.app/Contents/Resources/cli-plugins/docker-scan
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 USERID  staff    68B  5 Jul 15:24 /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout -> /Applications/Docker.app/Contents/Resources/cli-plugins/docker-scout

changing the symlinks in /Users/USERID/.docker/cli-plugins/ to point to /Users/USERID/Applications/Docker.app/Contents/cli-plugins/... seems to fix the errors

Expected Behavior

The symlinks point to subfolders of the install folder.

Additional Information

No response

Rancher Desktop Version

1.11.1

Rancher Desktop K8s Version

1.27.7

Which container engine are you using?

moby (docker cli)

What operating system are you using?

macOS

Operating System / Build Version

macos Ventura 13.6.1

What CPU architecture are you using?

arm64 (Apple Silicon)

Linux only: what package format did you use to install Rancher Desktop?

None

Windows User Only

No response

[jandubois]

The additional plugins are leftovers from your Docker Desktop installation; they are not included in Rancher Desktop (it only has docker-buildx and docker-compose).

It is not clear to me why changing the symlinks to the Rancher Desktop would change anything, as the files don't exist there either.

I would simply delete the dangling symlinks if you don't have these tools installed anywhere else.

Please leave this issue open; maybe we can add a diagnostic for this situation.

[david-hodgson-at-sky]

I fixed it by deleting all the symlinks in the folder and reinstalling Rancher Desktop. They were created corretly (working) then.

Yes, a diagnostic for cruft left behind by Docker Desktop would have saved me a few hours tracking down the exact issue and deleting everything old I could find.