JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh · error

invalid docker ps output on line %d: expected 7 fields, got

Error message

invalid docker ps output on line %d: expected 7 fields, got %d

What it means

The docker segment runs "docker ps --format ..." with tab-separated output and expects exactly 7 fields per line. If any non-empty line splits into a different number of tab-separated fields, the output can't be mapped onto the Container struct and this error aborts the segment.

Source

Thrown at src/segments/docker.go:203

	output, err := d.env.RunCommand(d.command.executable, d.command.args...)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	lines := strings.Split(strings.TrimSpace(output), "\n")
	if len(lines) == 0 || (len(lines) == 1 && lines[0] == "") {
		return nil, nil
	}

	containers := make([]Container, 0, len(lines))

	for i, line := range lines {
		line = strings.TrimRight(line, "\r")
		fields := strings.Split(line, "\t")

		if len(fields) != 7 {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid docker ps output on line %d: expected 7 fields, got %d", i+1, len(fields))
		}

		containers = append(containers, Container{
			ID:      fields[0],
			Image:   fields[1],
			Command: fields[2],
			Created: fields[3],
			Status:  fields[4],
			Ports:   fields[5],
			Names:   fields[6],
		})
	}

	return containers, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 0976794618)

Solutions

1. Check `docker ps --format '<the format the segment uses>'` manually - verify each line has exactly 7 tab-separated columns.
2. Update (or check the version of) the docker CLI - mismatched --format support is the usual culprit.
3. Ensure no shell alias/wrapper redefines docker ps with different output for the user running oh-my-posh.
4. Look at the actual first failing line number in the error to see the offending output and adapt the format.

// Pre-check docker output shape before consuming it
out, err := exec.Command("docker", "ps", "--format", formatStr).Output()
if err == nil {
    for i, line := range strings.Split(strings.TrimSpace(string(out)), "\n") {
        if line != "" && len(strings.Split(strings.TrimRight(line, "\r"), "\t")) != 7 {
            log.Printf("docker output shape mismatch at line %d", i+1)
        }
    }
}

containers, err := dockerSegment.FetchContainers()
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "invalid docker ps output") {
    // hide docker segment instead of failing the prompt
    return nil
}

When it happens

Trigger: The docker CLI output doesn't match the expected tab-separated 7-column format - typically because the installed docker version doesn't support the --format used, docker prints a warning/error line to stdout, or a container name/image contains characters altering the split.

Common situations: Very old or very new docker/podman versions changing default output; docker daemon warnings interleaved with data; localization or a wrapper script (alias) modifying output; line ending issues (the code trims \r but extra whitespace can remain).

Related errors

• gitstatus: truncated delta insert
• gitstatus: delta target size mismatch
• unclosed section:
• key-value delimiter not found:
• unable to find battery state based on output

AI-assisted analysis of JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh@0976794618 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a655589a9159ed57. Report an issue: GitHub.