invalid restart policy format: no policy provided before col

Error message

invalid restart policy format: no policy provided before colon

What it means

Error "invalid restart policy format: no policy provided before colon" thrown in docker/cli.

Source

Thrown at opts/parse.go:89

}

// ParseRestartPolicy parses a restart policy string ("name[:max-retries]")
// into a [container.RestartPolicy].
//
// Parsing is syntactic only; semantic validation is deferred to the daemon/API.
// An empty input returns a zero-value policy for backward compatibility. The
// retry count, if set, must be an integer (negative values are allowed here
// but may be rejected by the daemon).
func ParseRestartPolicy(policy string) (container.RestartPolicy, error) {
	if policy == "" {
		// For backward compatibility, do not set an explicit default ("no"),
		// as older daemons may not support it.
		return container.RestartPolicy{}, nil
	}

	name, count, ok := strings.Cut(policy, ":")
	if ok && name == "" {
		return container.RestartPolicy{}, errors.New("invalid restart policy format: no policy provided before colon")
	}

	var retryCount int
	if count != "" {
		c, err := strconv.Atoi(count)
		if err != nil {
			return container.RestartPolicy{}, errors.New("invalid restart policy format: maximum retry count must be an integer")
		}
		retryCount = c
	}

	return container.RestartPolicy{
		Name:              container.RestartPolicyMode(name),
		MaximumRetryCount: retryCount,
	}, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to e9452d6e78)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at opts/parse.go:89 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/761ed6d410949821.json. Report an issue: GitHub.