docker/cli · error

conflicting options: cannot specify both --timeout and --tim

Error message

conflicting options: cannot specify both --timeout and --time

What it means

Raised in newRestartCommand's RunE for `docker restart` when both the modern --timeout/-t flag and the deprecated legacy --time flag were explicitly set. Both flags configure the same value (seconds to wait before killing the container), so the CLI refuses ambiguous input instead of silently picking one.

Source

Thrown at cli/command/container/restart.go:33

type restartOptions struct {
	signal         string
	timeout        int
	timeoutChanged bool

	containers []string
}

// newRestartCommand creates a new cobra.Command for "docker container restart".
func newRestartCommand(dockerCLI command.Cli) *cobra.Command {
	var opts restartOptions

	cmd := &cobra.Command{
		Use:   "restart [OPTIONS] CONTAINER [CONTAINER...]",
		Short: "Restart one or more containers",
		Args:  cli.RequiresMinArgs(1),
		RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
			if cmd.Flags().Changed("time") && cmd.Flags().Changed("timeout") {
				return errors.New("conflicting options: cannot specify both --timeout and --time")
			}
			opts.containers = args
			opts.timeoutChanged = cmd.Flags().Changed("timeout") || cmd.Flags().Changed("time")
			return runRestart(cmd.Context(), dockerCLI, &opts)
		},
		Annotations: map[string]string{
			"aliases": "docker container restart, docker restart",
		},
		ValidArgsFunction:     completion.ContainerNames(dockerCLI, true),
		DisableFlagsInUseLine: true,
	}

	flags := cmd.Flags()
	flags.StringVarP(&opts.signal, "signal", "s", "", "Signal to send to the container")
	flags.IntVarP(&opts.timeout, "timeout", "t", 0, "Seconds to wait before killing the container")

	// The --time option is deprecated, but kept for backward compatibility.
	flags.IntVar(&opts.timeout, "time", 0, "Seconds to wait before killing the container (deprecated: use --timeout)")

View on GitHub (pinned to e9452d6e78)

Solutions

1. Remove one of the flags; prefer the current --timeout/-t: docker restart --timeout 10 mycontainer
2. Update legacy scripts to replace the deprecated --time with --timeout
3. If a wrapper injects one flag automatically, drop the duplicate from your own arguments

Example fix

# before
docker restart --time 10 --timeout 10 web
# after
docker restart --timeout 10 web

When it happens

Trigger: `docker restart --timeout 10 --time 20 <container>` or `docker container restart -t 5 --time 5 ...` — any invocation where cobra reports both flags as Changed. Setting just one of them is fine.

Common situations: Scripts written for older Docker versions using --time combined with newer wrappers/aliases that append --timeout; migration from the deprecated --time flag where both got left in the command line; the same guard exists on `docker stop`.

Related errors

• conflicting options: cannot specify both --attach and --deta
• filtering is not supported when specifying a list of contain
• conflicting options: cannot specify both --timeout and --tim
• conflicting options: --no-pause and --pause cannot be used t
• conflicting options: cannot specify both --network-alias and

AI-assisted analysis of docker/cli@e9452d6e78 (2026-08-01). Data as JSON: /data/errors/888ea23961a6c305.json. Report an issue: GitHub.