Stevedore
Overview
This project aims to provide a frictionless Docker experience for Windows Containers.
Stevedore can be used as a replacement for Docker Desktop, DockerMsftProvider or Mirantis Container Runtime.
Only Windows Containers are supported.
Bundled components
-
Docker Engine
-
Docker Compose
-
docker-credential-wincred
Supported OSes
-
Windows 10 starting with version 1809 (build 17763)
-
Windows 11
-
Windows Server 2019, 2022
Installation
Manual
-
Download MSI installer
-
Double-click on it
-
Next-next-next
-
Reboot your computer. This is needed to finish installation of Windows Containers feature and to add your user to
docker-usersgroup so user can access Docker service.
Chocolatey
Stevedore is available via Chocolatey package manager. If you already have Chocolatey installed, you can just run the following command from elevated console:
choco install stevedoreThen reboot.
WinGet
winget install stevedoreThen reboot.
Advanced: Command-line install options
Stevedore installer supports several command-line options that may be handy to configure unattended installations.
Basic usage: msiexec /i c:\path\to\stevedore.msi.
For quiet (non-interactive) installation add /quiet option.
If you only want to install specific Stevedore features, use ADDLOCAL=Feature1,Feature2,Feature3 syntax.
ADDLOCAL-
FeatureHyperVinstalls Hyper-V support. It allows running containers with Hyper-V isolation.
You can also pass custom installation properties to Stevedore installer using PROPERTY=value syntax.
-
INSTALLDIR=%ProgramFiles%\Stevedorespecifies directory where Stevedore executable files will be installed -
SERVICENAME=stevedorespecifies Windows service name
When installing Stevedore via Chocolatey, use this syntax: choco install stevedore --install-arguments="ADDLOCAL=Feature1,Feature2,Feature3 PROPERTY=value /quiet"
Usage
After installation and reboot, docker command should be available on PATH and ready to use.
You may try docker run --rm hello-world from a command line to confirm that everything was set up properly.
In order to communicate with Docker engine, users needs to be in docker-users group.
Upon installation, Stevedore automatically adds installing user to docker-users.
If you need other users to also access Docker engine, you will need to add them manually.
You can use Add-LocalGroupMember PowerShell commandlet for that.
Docker Compose
Stevedore installs two flavors of Docker Compose.
You can use Docker Compose V2 via docker compose command.
You can also use Docker Compose V1 compatibility mode via docker-compose command.
Configuration and data files
Stevedore stores configuration and runtime data files for Windows containers under %ProgramData%\Docker directory.
Building from source
-
Install WiX Toolset either manually or by running
choco install wixtoolsetif you have Chocolatey -
Install Visual Studio 2019 or 2022. Enable "Desktop development with C++" workload.
-
Clone Stevedore Git repository
-
Run
cargo install cargo-wixto install cargo-wix -
Run
cargo wix --nocapturein repository root. Ready-to-use MSI package will be built in<repo>/target/wixdirectory.
Where Linux containers support is gone?
Back in summer 2021, when this project was started, there were no known alternatives to Docker Desktop. Container Desktop didnβt exist yet, and Rancher Desktop just released initial 0.1.0 release.
Today, things are very different. Rancher Desktop provides both Docker and Kubernetes support, with a very advanced UI. Stevedore is very unlikely to even come closer to Rancher Desktop functionality due to limited developer resources and lack of motivation.
Thus, starting with 0.10.0 release, Stevedore focuses on its primary goal - providing a convenient way to install Docker for Windows containers.
If you want to run Linux containers, consider one of these projects:
-
Rancher Desktop (Windows + Linux + Mac)
-
Container Desktop (Windows-only)
-
Colima (Mac-only)