docker/cli · error

conflicting options: cannot specify a volume-name through bo

Error message

conflicting options: cannot specify a volume-name through both --name and as a positional arg

What it means

Raised by `docker volume create` when a volume name is supplied both as the positional argument and via the --name flag. Since both set the same field, the CLI refuses the ambiguous invocation rather than silently picking one.

Source

Thrown at cli/command/volume/create.go:58

}

func newCreateCommand(dockerCLI command.Cli) *cobra.Command {
	options := createOptions{
		driverOpts:        *opts.NewMapOpts(nil, nil),
		labels:            opts.NewListOpts(opts.ValidateLabel),
		secrets:           *opts.NewMapOpts(nil, nil),
		requisiteTopology: opts.NewListOpts(nil),
		preferredTopology: opts.NewListOpts(nil),
	}

	cmd := &cobra.Command{
		Use:   "create [OPTIONS] [VOLUME]",
		Short: "Create a volume",
		Args:  cli.RequiresMaxArgs(1),
		RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
			if len(args) == 1 {
				if options.name != "" {
					return errors.New("conflicting options: cannot specify a volume-name through both --name and as a positional arg")
				}
				options.name = args[0]
			}
			options.cluster = hasClusterVolumeOptionSet(cmd.Flags())
			return runCreate(cmd.Context(), dockerCLI, options)
		},
		ValidArgsFunction:     cobra.NoFileCompletions,
		DisableFlagsInUseLine: true,
	}
	flags := cmd.Flags()
	flags.StringVarP(&options.driver, "driver", "d", "local", "Specify volume driver name")
	flags.StringVar(&options.name, "name", "", "Specify volume name")
	flags.Lookup("name").Hidden = true
	flags.VarP(&options.driverOpts, "opt", "o", "Set driver specific options")
	flags.Var(&options.labels, "label", "Set metadata for a volume")

	// flags for cluster volumes only
	flags.StringVar(&options.group, "group", "", "Cluster Volume group (cluster volumes)")

View on GitHub (pinned to e9452d6e78)

Solutions

1. Pass the name only once, preferably positionally: `docker volume create foo`.
2. Remove the deprecated-style --name flag from scripts, or drop the positional arg if you keep --name.

Example fix

# before
docker volume create --name mydata mydata
# after
docker volume create mydata

When it happens

Trigger: `docker volume create --name foo bar` — cobra RunE sees len(args)==1 and options.name != "" at cli/command/volume/create.go:58.

Common situations: Scripts migrated from very old Docker versions where --name was the documented way, later edited to also pass a positional name; wrapper tooling that appends a positional arg while users also set --name.

Related errors

• conflicting options: cannot specify both --all and --filter
• images options are incompatible with type volume
• plugin candidate path cannot be empty
• plugin SchemaVersion version cannot be empty
• config file is required

AI-assisted analysis of docker/cli@e9452d6e78 (2026-08-01). Data as JSON: /data/errors/cf5b31bee5c47736.json. Report an issue: GitHub.