[Bug]: testcontainers does not respect environment variable DOCKER_HOST on windows 11 or windows server 2025 #10381
Description
Module
Core
Testcontainers version
1.21.2
Using the latest Testcontainers version?
Yes
Host OS
Windows
Host Arch
x86_64
Docker version
Client:
Version: 27.5.1
API version: 1.47
Go version: go1.22.11
Git commit: 9f9e405
Built: Wed Jan 22 13:41:44 2025
OS/Arch: windows/amd64
Context: default
Server: Docker Engine - Community
Engine:
Version: 28.3.0
API version: 1.51 (minimum version 1.24)
Go version: go1.24.4
Git commit: 265f709
Built: Tue Jun 24 15:44:12 2025
OS/Arch: linux/amd64
Experimental: false
containerd:
Version: 1.7.27
GitCommit: 05044ec0a9a75232cad458027ca83437aae3f4da
runc:
Version: 1.2.5
GitCommit: v1.2.5-0-g59923ef
docker-init:
Version: 0.19.0
GitCommit: de40ad0What happened?
- testcontainers does not respect environment variable
DOCKER_HOSTon windows 11 or windows server 2025. I created minimal unit tests at https://github.com/linghengqian/windows-env-testcontainers-test , and a corresponding github actions pipeline with no GUI operations. - Long story short, I want to start WSL2 on the windows runner on github actions and set up the Docker CLI on windows to connect to the Docker daemon on the linux distribution of WSL2 so that testcontainers-java can run Linux Containers.
- For https://github.com/linghengqian/windows-env-testcontainers-test/blob/master/.github/workflows/test.yml and https://github.com/linghengqian/windows-env-testcontainers-test/actions/runs/15953082853/job/44995706464 , I can execute
docker run hello-world:linuxon windows normally, but testcontainers-java ignores the environment variableDOCKER_HOST, resulting in unit test execution failure.
name: Test CI
on:
push:
branches: [ master ]
workflow_dispatch:
concurrency:
group: test-${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
cancel-in-progress: true
jobs:
test:
runs-on: 'windows-latest'
timeout-minutes: 60
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Setup WSL 2 and Ubuntu Linux distribution
uses: Vampire/setup-wsl@v5
with:
distribution: 'Ubuntu-24.04'
use-cache: 'true'
- name: Setup Docker daemon on Linux distribution on WSL without GUI
shell: wsl-bash {0}
run: |
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get remove docker.io docker-doc docker-compose docker-compose-v2 podman-docker containerd runc
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl -y
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin -y
sudo sed -i 's|-H fd://|-H fd:// -H tcp://127.0.0.1:12375|' /usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart docker.service
- name: Test Docker CLI on Windows Server without GUI
env:
DOCKER_HOST: tcp://127.0.0.1:12375
run: |
docker version
docker run hello-world:linux
- uses: actions/setup-java@v4
with:
distribution: 'microsoft'
java-version: '21'
cache: 'maven'
- name: Run test with JDK
env:
DOCKER_HOST: tcp://127.0.0.1:12375
run: ./mvnw clean test- I introduced another operation when you have access to the windows GUI at https://github.com/linghengqian/windows-env-testcontainers-test/blob/master/README.md . I know I can solve this problem directly by installing Docker Desktop or Rancher Desktop. But the problem is that there is no GUI in github actions, and I can't install Docker Desktop or Rancher Desktop. I have to manually configure the Docker CLI and Docker Daemon on WSL2.
Relevant log output
[INFO]
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] T E S T S
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Running io.github.linghengqian.SimpleTest
07:56:30.661 [main] INFO org.testcontainers.images.PullPolicy - Image pull policy will be performed by: DefaultPullPolicy()
07:56:30.677 [main] INFO org.testcontainers.utility.ImageNameSubstitutor - Image name substitution will be performed by: DefaultImageNameSubstitutor (composite of 'ConfigurationFileImageNameSubstitutor' and 'PrefixingImageNameSubstitutor')
07:56:30.724 [main] INFO org.testcontainers.DockerClientFactory - Testcontainers version: 1.21.2
07:56:30.943 [main] WARN org.testcontainers.dockerclient.DockerClientProviderStrategy - DOCKER_HOST tcp://127.0.0.1:12375 is not listening
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.Net.connect0(Native Method)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.Net.connect(Net.java:589)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.Net.connect(Net.java:578)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.NioSocketImpl.connect(NioSocketImpl.java:583)
at java.base/java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:327)
at java.base/java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:751)
at java.base/java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:686)
at org.testcontainers.dockerclient.DockerClientProviderStrategy.lambda$test$3(DockerClientProviderStrategy.java:214)
at org.testcontainers.shaded.org.awaitility.core.AssertionCondition.lambda$new$0(AssertionCondition.java:53)
at org.testcontainers.shaded.org.awaitility.core.ConditionAwaiter$ConditionPoller.call(ConditionAwaiter.java:248)
at org.testcontainers.shaded.org.awaitility.core.ConditionAwaiter$ConditionPoller.call(ConditionAwaiter.java:235)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:317)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1144)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:642)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1583)
07:56:31.161 [main] INFO org.testcontainers.dockerclient.DockerClientProviderStrategy - Found Docker environment with local Npipe socket (npipe:////./pipe/docker_engine)
07:56:31.161 [main] WARN org.testcontainers.dockerclient.DockerClientProviderStrategy - windows is currently not supported
07:56:31.176 [main] INFO org.testcontainers.dockerclient.DockerMachineClientProviderStrategy - docker-machine executable was not found on PATH ([C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7, C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Java_Microsoft_jdk\21.0.2\x64\bin, D:\a\_temp\wsl-shell-wrapper, C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\5.0\bin, C:\aliyun-cli, C:\vcpkg, C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\, C:\tools\zstd, C:\Program Files\Mercurial\, C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\stack\3.5.1\x64, C:\cabal\bin, C:\\ghcup\bin, C:\mingw64\bin, C:\Program Files\dotnet, C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\bin, C:\Program Files\R\R-4.4.2\bin\x64, C:\SeleniumWebDrivers\GeckoDriver, C:\SeleniumWebDrivers\EdgeDriver\, C:\SeleniumWebDrivers\ChromeDriver, C:\Program Files (x86)\sbt\bin, C:\Program Files (x86)\GitHub CLI, C:\Program Files\Git\bin, C:\Program Files (x86)\pipx_bin, C:\npm\prefix, C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\go\1.24.4\x64\bin, C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Python\3.9.13\x64\Scripts, C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Python\3.9.13\x64, C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\
07:56:31.176 [main] ERROR org.testcontainers.dockerclient.DockerClientProviderStrategy - Could not find a valid Docker environment. Please check configuration. Attempted configurations were:
NpipeSocketClientProviderStrategy: failed with exception InvalidConfigurationException (windows containers are currently not supported)As no valid configuration was found, execution cannot continue.
See https://java.testcontainers.org/on_failure.html for more details.
Error: Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.703 s <<< FAILURE! -- in io.github.linghengqian.SimpleTest
Error: io.github.linghengqian.SimpleTest.testContainers -- Time elapsed: 0.687 s <<< ERROR!
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not find a valid Docker environment. Please see logs and check configuration
at org.testcontainers.dockerclient.DockerClientProviderStrategy.lambda$getFirstValidStrategy$7(DockerClientProviderStrategy.java:274)
at java.base/java.util.Optional.orElseThrow(Optional.java:403)
at org.testcontainers.dockerclient.DockerClientProviderStrategy.getFirstValidStrategy(DockerClientProviderStrategy.java:265)
at org.testcontainers.DockerClientFactory.getOrInitializeStrategy(DockerClientFactory.java:154)
at org.testcontainers.DockerClientFactory.client(DockerClientFactory.java:196)
at org.testcontainers.DockerClientFactory$1.getDockerClient(DockerClientFactory.java:108)
at com.github.dockerjava.api.DockerClientDelegate.authConfig(DockerClientDelegate.java:109)
at org.testcontainers.containers.GenericContainer.start(GenericContainer.java:321)
at io.github.linghengqian.SimpleTest.testContainers(SimpleTest.java:16)
at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:580)
at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1596)
at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1596)
[INFO]
[INFO] Results:
[INFO]
Error: Errors:
Error: SimpleTest.testContainers:16 � IllegalState Could not find a valid Docker environment. Please see logs and check configuration
[INFO]
Error: Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 10.818 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2025-06-29T07:56:31Z
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error: Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:3.2.5:test (default-test) on project windows-env-testcontainers-test:
Error:
Error: Please refer to D:\a\windows-env-testcontainers-test\windows-env-testcontainers-test\target\surefire-reports for the individual test results.
Error: Please refer to dump files (if any exist) [date].dump, [date]-jvmRun[N].dump and [date].dumpstream.
Error: -> [Help 1]
Error:
Error: To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
Error: Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
Error:
Error: For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
Error: [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoFailureException
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.Additional Information
- Early investigation came from Support running nativeTest under GraalVM Native Image on Windows 11 apache/shardingsphere#35052 .