amir20/dozzle · error

cannot self-update: stopping Dozzle would terminate the…

Error message

cannot self-update: stopping Dozzle would terminate the update process

What it means

`UpdateContainer` recreates a container by stopping, removing, and recreating it. If the image being updated is Dozzle itself (amir20/dozzle), stopping it would kill the process performing the update, so the operation is refused with this error and an error status is pushed to the progress channel.

Solutions

1. Update Dozzle via its deployment mechanism instead: pull the new image and recreate with docker compose / watchtower outside Dozzle
2. Run the update from the host: `docker pull amir20/dozzle:latest && docker compose up -d dozzle`
3. Exclude the dozzle container from automated bulk-update tooling

Example fix

// before
curl -X POST /api/hosts/local/containers/<dozzle_id>/actions/update
// after
docker pull amir20/dozzle:latest && docker compose up -d dozzle

inspect=$(docker inspect --format '{{.Config.Image}}' <container_id>)
case "$inspect" in
  *amir20/dozzle*) echo 'refusing: cannot update dozzle from within itself' >&2; exit 1;;
esac

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the container-update API/action on a standalone (non-Swarm) Dozzle container whose image name contains 'amir20/dozzle'.

Common situations: Users clicking 'update' on Dozzle in the Dozzle UI; automation scripts iterating all containers and attempting self-update of the dozzle container.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

• action failed
• container not found
• registry requires authentication
• image not found in registry
• registry rate limited the request

AI-assisted analysis of amir20/dozzle@d9463cbe21 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4cf28b3ad37ac310. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/support/docker/docker_service.go:228

	}

	// 4. Check if this is a swarm service
	serviceName := c.Labels["com.docker.swarm.service.name"]
	if serviceName != "" {
		progressCh <- container.UpdateProgress{Status: "recreating"}
		serviceID := c.Labels["com.docker.swarm.service.id"]
		if err := d.client.ServiceUpdate(ctx, serviceID, imageName); err != nil {
			progressCh <- container.UpdateProgress{Status: "error", Error: fmt.Sprintf("service update failed: %v", err)}
			return false, err
		}
		progressCh <- container.UpdateProgress{Status: "done"}
		return true, nil
	}

	// 5. Standalone container: check for self-update
	if strings.Contains(imageName, "amir20/dozzle") {
		progressCh <- container.UpdateProgress{Status: "error", Error: "Dozzle cannot update itself. Please restart manually."}
		return false, fmt.Errorf("cannot self-update: stopping Dozzle would terminate the update process")
	}

	// 6. Standalone container: stop -> remove -> create -> start
	progressCh <- container.UpdateProgress{Status: "recreating"}

	containerName := strings.TrimPrefix(inspectResp.Name, "/")

	// Stop if running
	if c.State == "running" {
		if err := d.client.ContainerActions(ctx, container.Stop, c.ID); err != nil {
			progressCh <- container.UpdateProgress{Status: "error", Error: fmt.Sprintf("stop failed: %v", err)}
			return false, err
		}
	}

	// Remove
	if err := d.client.ContainerRemove(ctx, c.ID); err != nil {
		progressCh <- container.UpdateProgress{Status: "error", Error: fmt.Sprintf("remove failed: %v", err)}

View on GitHub (pinned to d9463cbe21)