Start up local Docker Machine on OSX automatically.

com.docker.machine.default.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
        <dict>
            <key>PATH</key>
            <string>{{user-path}}</string>
        </dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.docker.machine.default</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>{{docker-machine}}</string>
            <string>start</string>
            <string>default</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
</plist>

Start up local Docker Machine on OSX automatically.md

Notice

This script is no longer required with Docker for Mac which includes an option to run Docker at startup and doesn't use docker-machine to administer the local Docker engine.

Requirements

• Docker Machine + Docker
• curl
• A Virtualbox-driven Docker Machine called "default" docker-machine create --driver virtualbox default (this is the default with Docker toolkit).

Usage

$ curl -sL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/andystanton/257fab335b242bc2658b/raw/c62ae413a0a45ec5d832fb04065a085a8fb477da/com.docker.machine.default.plist | \
    sed -e "s?{{docker-machine}}?$(which docker-machine)?" \
        -e "s?{{user-path}}?$PATH?" \
    >~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.docker.machine.default.plist && \
    launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.docker.machine.default.plist

@andystanton, I just tried it and it works! Thanks for preparing this.

I also put the following into my ~/.bashrc:

eval $(docker-machine env default)

So now I can use the docker command from my terminal just like if I was on Linux.

I'm glad it was useful @certik!

@certik this worked for me! Thanks again @andystanton

Why not place the following in your startup file
e.g. ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.

DOCKER_MACHINE="dev"
if docker-machine status $DOCKER_MACHINE | grep "Running" &> /dev/null
  then
    eval "$(docker-machine env $DOCKER_MACHINE)"
  else
    docker-machine start $DOCKER_MACHINE && eval "$(docker-machine env $DOCKER_MACHINE)"
fi

For fish place the following in ~/.config/fish/config.fish

set DOCKER_MACHINE dev
if docker-machine status $DOCKER_MACHINE | grep "Running" > /dev/null
  eval (docker-machine env $DOCKER_MACHINE)
else
  docker-machine start $DOCKER_MACHINE and eval (docker-machine env $DOCKER_MACHINE)
end

@TrevorSayre that starts Docker only when you begin a terminal session after logging in. Using the launchctl script starts Docker when you log in, and is agnostic to what shell you use.

@andystanton Thank you for the response. I guess that difference doesn't affect me, I only use Docker in my terminal.

For some reason this does not start my Docker Machine on boot. OS-X 10.11.5 running the latest Docker Toolbox.

Hi @ellisio, can you let me know the output of the following commands:

echo $PATH
cat ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.docker.machine.default.plist
launchctl list | grep docker
which docker-machine
docker-machine --version
docker-machine ls
which docker
docker --version

@andystanton:

echo $PATH

/Users/kulikov-im/.yarn/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/Users/kulikov-im/.yarn/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/Users/kulikov-im/.rvm/bin:/Users/kulikov-im/Library/Android/sdk/tools:/Users/kulikov-im/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:/Users/kulikov-im/.rvm/bin:/Users/kulikov-im/.rvm/bin:/Users/kulikov-im/.golang//bin

cat ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.docker.machine.dev.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
        <dict>
            <key>PATH</key>
            <string>/Users/kulikov-im/.yarn/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/Users/kulikov-im/.yarn/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/Users/kulikov-im/.rvm/bin:/Users/kulikov-im/Library/Android/sdk/tools:/Users/kulikov-im/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:/Users/kulikov-im/.rvm/bin:/Users/kulikov-im/.rvm/bin:/Users/kulikov-im/.golang//bin</string>
        </dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.docker.machine.default</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>/usr/local/bin/docker-machine</string>
            <string>start</string>
            <string>dev</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
        <string>/usr/local/var/log/dockermachine-errors.log</string>
        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>/usr/local/var/log/dockermachine-status.log</string>
    </dict>
</plist>

launchctl list | grep docker

$ launchctl list | grep docker
2805    0   com.docker.machine.default

which docker-machine:

/usr/local/bin/docker-machine

docker-machine --version:

docker-machine version 0.8.2, build e18a919

docker-machine ls:

$ docker-machine ls
NAME   ACTIVE   DRIVER   STATE     URL   SWARM   DOCKER   ERRORS
dev             xhyve    Timeout

which docker:

$ which docker
/usr/local/bin/docker

docker --version:

$ docker --version
Docker version 1.12.1, build 23cf638

StandardErrorPath + StandardOutPath:

==> /usr/local/var/log/dockermachine-errors.log <==

==> /usr/local/var/log/dockermachine-status.log <==
Starting "dev"...
(dev) Waiting for VM to come online...
(dev) Waiting on a pseudo-terminal to be ready... done
(dev) Hook up your terminal emulator to /dev/ttys003 in order to connect to your VM

==> /usr/local/var/log/dockermachine-errors.log <==
Too many retries waiting for SSH to be available.  Last error: Maximum number of retries (60) exceeded

@andystanton if I add --debug to run command, like this docker-machine --debug start dev, then i see next (looping this message):

(dev) DBG | SSH cmd err, output: exit status 255:
(dev) DBG | Error getting ssh command 'exit 0' : Something went wrong running an SSH command!
(dev) DBG | command : exit 0
(dev) DBG | err     : exit status 255
(dev) DBG | output  :
(dev) DBG |
(dev) DBG | Getting to WaitForSSH function...
(dev) DBG | Using SSH client type: external
(dev) DBG | {[-o BatchMode=yes -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o LogLevel=quiet -o ConnectionAttempts=3 -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlMaster=no -o ControlPath=none docker@192.168.64.14 -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -i /Users/kulikov-im/.docker/machine/machines/dev/id_rsa -p 22] /usr/bin/ssh}
(dev) DBG | About to run SSH command:
(dev) DBG | exit 0

In my case, I want to start the docker-machine when booting (not when user logging in), so I put com.docker.machine.dev.plist into /Library/LaunchDaemons/, add

<key>UserName</key>
<string>{{ your_username }}</string>

as running docker-machine as root will throw Host does not exist: "default"

beside that, change file's owner to root:wheel

sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.docker.machine.dev.plist

then everything is fine.

This worked great for me. Thanks, @andystanton!

Good job, thanks @andystanton!

For homebrew users:
brew services start docker-machine

In my case the entire process of starting up the docker-machine was slow... because of that I was forced to add the following:
while [ "$(docker-machine ls --filter name=default -f '{{.Error}}')" != "" ] && [ "$(docker-machine ls --filter name=default -f '{{.URL}}')" == "" ]; do sleep 1; done; eval $(docker-machine env default);
in
.bash_profile