Lima as Docker Desktop Replacement

I’ve had some issues using podman as a complete Docker replacement. Especially around exposing docker API as a socket. This is required for some libraries such as dockertest. Library uses DOCKER_HOST environment variable and communicates with Docker daemon via the socket file pointed by the environment variable.

I found lima as a good replacement. Lima is a VM solution that uses qemu behind the wheels. Getting started is fairly easy.

Delete docker for desktop

If you haven’t done already, uninstall docker for desktop.

brew uninstall --cask docker

Keep docker CLI. It is only a wrapper to communicate with docker backend. If you don’t have it, install it by:

brew install docker

Use Lima as Docker for Desktop Replacement

1. First, Install lima brew install lima.
2. Start lima VM lima start.
3. You will be prompted by a configuration selection. Choose Open an editor to override the configuration.
4. Copy the contents of examples/docker.yaml and replace it with prompted configuration.
5. Expose DOCKER_HOST the way it is logged.

Here is an example result of the start command:

INFO[0135] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.
INFO[0135] To run `docker` on the host (assumes docker-cli is installed):
INFO[0135] $ export DOCKER_HOST=unix:///Users/halil/.lima/default/sock/docker.sock
INFO[0135] $ docker ...

Test it out

docker info should print information about the VM lima runs.