[BUG] `docker compose up --build` does not restart containers if image ID changes, making `docker compose images` fail

[felixfontein]

Description

In the CI for the Ansible collection community.docker, I noticed a problem with the latest Compose release in certain environments. I cannot reproduce it on my machine (Arch Linux) or with GHA's ubuntu:latest Docker daemon, but reproducible on RHEL 9.8 and 10.2 VMs.

It can be reproduced with the following docker-compose.yml:

services:
  foo:
    build: ./build
    image: foo
    pull_policy: never
    stop_grace_period: 1s

and the following build/Dockerfile:

FROM quay.io/ansible/docker-test-containers:alpine3.8
ENTRYPOINT ["/bin/sh", "-c", "sleep 10m"]

Steps To Reproduce

1. Set up docker-compose.yml and build/Dockerfile as above.
2. Run docker compose up --detach --build
3. Run docker compose images: this works
4. Run docker compose up --detach --build again
5. Run docker compose images: this now fails with Error response from daemon: No such image: sha256:40bb5bcde0724b0fee1b54ab60b9685c9c04c9fc0fe70228d61653f8a43ac921 (ID will vary)

Compose Version

Docker Compose version v5.4.0

Docker Environment

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:    29.7.2
 Context:    default
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.36.1
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v5.4.0
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

Server:
 Containers: 1
  Running: 1
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 0
 Images: 1
 Server Version: 29.7.2
 Storage Driver: overlayfs
  driver-type: io.containerd.snapshotter.v1
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: systemd
 Cgroup Version: 2
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: aad11006b869517fcd3009450b6f82da282e1a9b
 runc version: v1.4.3-0-gbb14dabe
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.12.0-211.40.1.el10_2.x86_64
 Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.2 (Coughlan)
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 2
 Total Memory: 3.47GiB
 Name: ip-192-168-3-57.ec2.internal
 ID: 03bc9448-54df-4252-b23a-1494eb3ff3f4
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false
 Firewall Backend: iptables
  EnableUserlandProxy: true
  UserlandProxyPath: /usr/bin/docker-proxy

Anything else?

When running docker image list before and after the second docker compose up --detach --build run, I can see that the image ID changes. Despite that, the second docker compose up --detach --build does not restart the container. When running docker compose --ansi never --progress json up --detach --build to see what exactly is happening, I get something like:

{"id":"Image foo","status":"Working","text":"Building"}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:4b58559d8a6864678e56d2ebb00a1cd35a60f47dc25d239de21796391ffab4ab","name":"[internal] load local bake definitions","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.375968748Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"reading from stdin","vertex":"sha256:4b58559d8a6864678e56d2ebb00a1cd35a60f47dc25d239de21796391ffab4ab","current":526,"timestamp":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.376063309Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"reading from stdin","vertex":"sha256:4b58559d8a6864678e56d2ebb00a1cd35a60f47dc25d239de21796391ffab4ab","current":526,"timestamp":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.376063309Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"reading from stdin","vertex":"sha256:4b58559d8a6864678e56d2ebb00a1cd35a60f47dc25d239de21796391ffab4ab","current":526,"timestamp":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.376063309Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.37640108Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:4b58559d8a6864678e56d2ebb00a1cd35a60f47dc25d239de21796391ffab4ab","name":"[internal] load local bake definitions","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.375968748Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.376402123Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:954f26cb6dd91bec763d3b09cd0952be8079cb23d68cef1738481228d8dfe9a0","name":"[internal] load build definition from Dockerfile"},{"digest":"sha256:954f26cb6dd91bec763d3b09cd0952be8079cb23d68cef1738481228d8dfe9a0","name":"[internal] load build definition from Dockerfile","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.40710106Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:954f26cb6dd91bec763d3b09cd0952be8079cb23d68cef1738481228d8dfe9a0","name":"[internal] load build definition from Dockerfile","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.40710106Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.407123437Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:954f26cb6dd91bec763d3b09cd0952be8079cb23d68cef1738481228d8dfe9a0","name":"[internal] load build definition from Dockerfile","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.407188272Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"transferring dockerfile:","vertex":"sha256:954f26cb6dd91bec763d3b09cd0952be8079cb23d68cef1738481228d8dfe9a0","name":"transferring","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.408169451Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.408168733Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"transferring dockerfile:","vertex":"sha256:954f26cb6dd91bec763d3b09cd0952be8079cb23d68cef1738481228d8dfe9a0","name":"transferring","current":89,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.408815317Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.408168733Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"transferring dockerfile:","vertex":"sha256:954f26cb6dd91bec763d3b09cd0952be8079cb23d68cef1738481228d8dfe9a0","name":"transferring","current":193,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.409516781Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.408168733Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.409516267Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:954f26cb6dd91bec763d3b09cd0952be8079cb23d68cef1738481228d8dfe9a0","name":"[internal] load build definition from Dockerfile","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.407188272Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.412485734Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:da2b2b574ec5b30f5c1f85118b7dd7425faffe11eb54e347fbb459cfb256fb04","name":"[internal] load metadata for quay.io/ansible/docker-test-containers:alpine3.8","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.414410784Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:da2b2b574ec5b30f5c1f85118b7dd7425faffe11eb54e347fbb459cfb256fb04","name":"[internal] load metadata for quay.io/ansible/docker-test-containers:alpine3.8","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.414410784Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.639776176Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:9972a57f977c23ca76125b42c1c405dee759e25b0492da93b67b0c4d4b55f249","name":"[internal] load .dockerignore"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:9972a57f977c23ca76125b42c1c405dee759e25b0492da93b67b0c4d4b55f249","name":"[internal] load .dockerignore","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.640346122Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.640360508Z"},{"digest":"sha256:9972a57f977c23ca76125b42c1c405dee759e25b0492da93b67b0c4d4b55f249","name":"[internal] load .dockerignore","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.640413977Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"transferring context:","vertex":"sha256:9972a57f977c23ca76125b42c1c405dee759e25b0492da93b67b0c4d4b55f249","name":"transferring","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.642157288Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.64215638Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"transferring context:","vertex":"sha256:9972a57f977c23ca76125b42c1c405dee759e25b0492da93b67b0c4d4b55f249","name":"transferring","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.642649561Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.64215638Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"transferring context:","vertex":"sha256:9972a57f977c23ca76125b42c1c405dee759e25b0492da93b67b0c4d4b55f249","name":"transferring","current":2,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.642974544Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.64215638Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.642974231Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:9972a57f977c23ca76125b42c1c405dee759e25b0492da93b67b0c4d4b55f249","name":"[internal] load .dockerignore","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.640413977Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.648355222Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:25e23d17c54fc2311a0aac20b1c24b40752fd85a2973aa029785576bae901367","name":"[1/1] FROM quay.io/ansible/docker-test-containers:alpine3.8@sha256:954b378c375d852eb3c63ab88978f640b4348b01c1b3456a024a81536dafbbf4"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:25e23d17c54fc2311a0aac20b1c24b40752fd85a2973aa029785576bae901367","name":"[1/1] FROM quay.io/ansible/docker-test-containers:alpine3.8@sha256:954b378c375d852eb3c63ab88978f640b4348b01c1b3456a024a81536dafbbf4","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.653880579Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"resolve quay.io/ansible/docker-test-containers:alpine3.8@sha256:954b378c375d852eb3c63ab88978f640b4348b01c1b3456a024a81536dafbbf4","vertex":"sha256:25e23d17c54fc2311a0aac20b1c24b40752fd85a2973aa029785576bae901367","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.656382309Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.656382078Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:25e23d17c54fc2311a0aac20b1c24b40752fd85a2973aa029785576bae901367","name":"[1/1] FROM quay.io/ansible/docker-test-containers:alpine3.8@sha256:954b378c375d852eb3c63ab88978f640b4348b01c1b3456a024a81536dafbbf4","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.653880579Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.667196364Z"}],"statuses":[{"id":"resolve quay.io/ansible/docker-test-containers:alpine3.8@sha256:954b378c375d852eb3c63ab88978f640b4348b01c1b3456a024a81536dafbbf4","vertex":"sha256:25e23d17c54fc2311a0aac20b1c24b40752fd85a2973aa029785576bae901367","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.667155226Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.656382078Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.667154942Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:25e23d17c54fc2311a0aac20b1c24b40752fd85a2973aa029785576bae901367","name":"[1/1] FROM quay.io/ansible/docker-test-containers:alpine3.8@sha256:954b378c375d852eb3c63ab88978f640b4348b01c1b3456a024a81536dafbbf4","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.668014119Z","cached":true}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:25e23d17c54fc2311a0aac20b1c24b40752fd85a2973aa029785576bae901367","name":"[1/1] FROM quay.io/ansible/docker-test-containers:alpine3.8@sha256:954b378c375d852eb3c63ab88978f640b4348b01c1b3456a024a81536dafbbf4","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.668014119Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.668560923Z","cached":true}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","name":"exporting to image","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.671062871Z"}],"statuses":[{"id":"exporting layers","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.671110552Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.67111037Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"exporting layers","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.671811781Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.67111037Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.671811384Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"exporting manifest sha256:7b4c0e5c5f3b6dcff5b5d877dc9e1f6e19d2059db8ad8eb15bcbd061a43d080c","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.671982604Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.671982389Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"exporting manifest sha256:7b4c0e5c5f3b6dcff5b5d877dc9e1f6e19d2059db8ad8eb15bcbd061a43d080c","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.67449343Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.671982389Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.674493176Z"},{"id":"exporting config sha256:64e915d425cffa548b252ecc3f825618ef099c9a4744d5d84e5b912a5815a4b0","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.674497495Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.674497342Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"exporting config sha256:64e915d425cffa548b252ecc3f825618ef099c9a4744d5d84e5b912a5815a4b0","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.676633239Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.674497342Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.676632886Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"exporting attestation manifest sha256:b8cb619b8fa9409b49e4f75f4c261190d58adceb2e1fb4d28b9afe8e7dc942b9","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.687846953Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.687846681Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"exporting attestation manifest sha256:b8cb619b8fa9409b49e4f75f4c261190d58adceb2e1fb4d28b9afe8e7dc942b9","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.701039943Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.687846681Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.701039628Z"},{"id":"exporting manifest list sha256:819eaa85552e3613777fc46127aadcd71ba6a50c31afd2e08308bde30d478126","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.701061142Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.701060976Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"exporting manifest list sha256:819eaa85552e3613777fc46127aadcd71ba6a50c31afd2e08308bde30d478126","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.711998848Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.701060976Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.711998494Z"},{"id":"naming to docker.io/library/foo:latest","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.712004429Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.71200427Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"naming to docker.io/library/foo:latest","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.714262209Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.71200427Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.714261832Z"},{"id":"unpacking to docker.io/library/foo:latest","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.714283569Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.714281638Z"}]}
{"statuses":[{"id":"unpacking to docker.io/library/foo:latest","vertex":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","current":0,"timestamp":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.719834695Z","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.714281638Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.719834407Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:3727fa1768102f3df504db07e5308b6dc3c01e55415cba286813aa4ffc73a733","name":"exporting to image","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.671062871Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.727597997Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:eb3382d9c5325503f75b337c02a5d07e17ca67ed3eccbe853e5a7dfacd6a81c3","name":"resolving provenance for metadata file","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.789818257Z"}]}
{"vertexes":[{"digest":"sha256:eb3382d9c5325503f75b337c02a5d07e17ca67ed3eccbe853e5a7dfacd6a81c3","name":"resolving provenance for metadata file","started":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.789818257Z","completed":"2026-08-07T08:44:46.793011354Z"}]}
{"id":"Image foo","status":"Done","text":"Built"}
{"id":"Container t-foo-1","status":"Done","text":"Running"}

Here you can see that the image was built, the exported manifest has a new ID, but the container isn't recreated.

Also this clearly depends on other things as the Docker Compose and Docker daemon versions, since I have the same versions running on my local Arch box, but there the build always results in the same image ID.