docker/cli · error

duration cannot be negative

Error message

duration cannot be negative

What it means

Error "duration cannot be negative" thrown in docker/cli.

Source

Thrown at opts/duration.go:22

	"errors"
	"time"
)

// PositiveDurationOpt is an option type for time.Duration that uses a pointer.
// It behave similarly to DurationOpt but only allows positive duration values.
type PositiveDurationOpt struct {
	DurationOpt
}

// Set a new value on the option. Setting a negative duration value will cause
// an error to be returned.
func (d *PositiveDurationOpt) Set(s string) error {
	err := d.DurationOpt.Set(s)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if *d.DurationOpt.value < 0 {
		return errors.New("duration cannot be negative")
	}
	return nil
}

// DurationOpt is an option type for time.Duration that uses a pointer. This
// allows us to get nil values outside, instead of defaulting to 0
type DurationOpt struct {
	value *time.Duration
}

// NewDurationOpt creates a DurationOpt with the specified duration
func NewDurationOpt(value *time.Duration) *DurationOpt {
	return &DurationOpt{
		value: value,
	}
}

// Set a new value on the option

View on GitHub (pinned to e9452d6e78)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at opts/duration.go:22 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of docker/cli@e9452d6e78 (2026-08-01). Data as JSON: /data/errors/ad5b332c05215942.json. Report an issue: GitHub.