Ability to download old releases

[mfornasa]

I am aware of #444, but that issue has been closed without explanation.

It should be possible to download older versions. For example, version 1.13.0-rc5 has a high priority bug (moby/moby#29950) that breaks all our caching. rc5 has been auto installed, and I am unable to find the package to revert to rc4 while waiting for a new stable release with the fix.

Please advise.

[justincormack]

@mfornasa 1.13.0-rc5 is a beta channel release, so unfortunately there may be breakages. There will be a new beta release this week. If you want a stable release, we recommend installing from the stable channel.

[mfornasa]

I accept the possibility of a breakage on beta, no issues with that.

I would like to be able to manually download an older package. This would also help in debugging issues with the beta and provide you better feedback.

[mfornasa]

@justincormack I have been able to find the link for version rc4 using the forum: https://download.docker.com/mac/beta/1.13.0.14840/Docker.dmg. I still believe that it would be useful to have a list of those links somewhere.

[cloakedcode]

There are two ways to downgrade:

1. Recreate the URL

If you happen to know the build number (e.g. 14937) -- not the git commit you see when running docker --version or docker version -- you can form the URL:

https://download.docker.com/mac/{{ beta | stable}}/{{ version }}.{{ build number }}/Docker.dmg
# example:
https://download.docker.com/mac/stable/1.12.6.14937/Docker.dmg

(Note: the build number shows up in "About Docker" from the menulet menu.)

Of course, you'd need to know the build number, which is hard to do if you've already upgraded.

2. Pull it from Trash

After upgrading, the old Docker.app gets put in the Trash (e.g. Docker (14937)). Uninstall the current version, Preferences... -> Uninstall / Reset -> Uninstall; delete /Applications/Docker; copy the old version from the Trash into /Applications; rename to Docker; and launch Docker to begin the install process.

[hyperknot]

@cloakedcode's link for 1.12.6 is the only code on the internet for a reliable 1.12 version.

This is a joke. Pushing an unstable, buggy version and then just not caring about keeping an archive download list.

1.12.6 is actually totally missing from the Release Notes, so no way to figure out the build number ourselves.

[friism]

@hyperknot there was never a stable release that included Docker Engine 1.12.6. 1.12.6 and 1.13.0 were released almost at the same time so Docker for Mac stable went straight to 1.13.0.

Are you experiencing stability problems with Docker 1.13?

[mrhanlon]

@friism I'll speak for myself at least, but I found 1.13 to be unusable on my corporate network. It would not play nice at all with VPN/Proxy/DNS, where the 1.12.x releases were fine.

I will say that this is somewhat beside the point here. I don't think that it is unexpected that at least someone is going to have a problem with an update release affecting their workflow. But when that does happen, the most common thing to do is go download the last known working version. But since Docker for Mac doesn't list any archived releases that is impossible, unless you magic the URL out of the Github issues.

[mfornasa]

To be clear: I am not suggesting an automatic downgrade mechanism, or nothing fancy. A simple list of download links for previous version would be really valuable. The lack of it has been a nuisance for me and my company twice in the last couple of months.

[hyperknot]

@mrhanlon https://download.docker.com/mac/stable/1.12.6.14937/Docker.dmg is a stable release with 1.12.6 and works reliably.

Yes, 1.13.0 is full of bugs, I simply could delete exited containers on it and so on. It was like that with 1.12.(0,1,2) and I believe it'll be like this in the future. Thus I'd prefer to always stay on older releases with Docker.

[friism]

@mrhanlon @hyperknot if you haven't already, can you run diagnostics when this is failing and open a separate issue so that we can fix the problem?

We're continuously fixing bugs (including security-related problems), and those fixes are released in new versions of Docker for Mac. We don't support or patch older versions - we only support the latest version on the stable and beta channels respectively.

Because we want users to be running software that's patched and secure, we don't publicly document how to download and install old versions.

If you find bugs in Docker for Mac and Windows (either stable or beta), please run the in-app diagnostics and open an issue so that we can address the problem.