[BUG] Docker Compose Fails with 'exit status 128' When Including Remote Git Repository

[grzegorzb1990]

Description

​When using Docker Compose with the COMPOSE_EXPERIMENTAL_GIT_REMOTE feature to include a remote Git repository, the process fails with exit status 128.

Expected Behavior:

Docker Compose should successfully include the remote Git repository and start the defined services without errors.​

Observed Behavior:

The process fails with the following debug output:​

DEBU[0000] Enabled Docker Desktop integration (experimental) @ unix:///var/run/docker-cli.sock
DEBU[0000] otel error                                    error="<nil>"
DEBU[0000] otel error                                    error="<nil>"
exit status 128

Steps To Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a docker-compose.yml file with the following content:

   services:
     hello_world:
       image: hello-world
   include:
    - git@github.com:conduktor/kafka-stack-docker-compose.git#master:zk-single-kafka-single.yml
   

2. Execute the following command

GIT_TRACE=2 GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=2 GIT_TRACE_PERFORMANCE=2 GIT_TRACE_PACK_ACCESS=2 GIT_TRACE_PACKET=2 GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE=2 GIT_TRACE_SETUP=2 GIT_TRACE_SHALLOW=2 COMPOSE_EXPERIMENTAL_GIT_REMOTE=1 docker-compose --debug -f docker-compose.yml up -d

Compose Version

Docker Compose version v2.34.0-desktop.1

Docker Environment

Client:
 Version:    28.0.4
 Context:    default
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.1.3
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-ai
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.22.0-desktop.1
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  cloud: Docker Cloud (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.2.20
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-cloud
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.34.0-desktop.1
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.38
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-debug
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Beta) (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.6
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-desktop
  dev: Docker Dev Environments (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.2
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.27
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-init
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.17.0
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout
WARNING: Plugin "/usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-feedback" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-feedback: no such file or directory
WARNING: Plugin "/usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan: no such file or directory

Server:
 Containers: 88
  Running: 1
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 87
 Images: 85
 Server Version: 28.0.4
 Storage Driver: overlay2
  Backing Filesystem: extfs
  Supports d_type: true
  Using metacopy: false
  Native Overlay Diff: true
  userxattr: false
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 1
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: nvidia runc io.containerd.runc.v2
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: 753481ec61c7c8955a23d6ff7bc8e4daed455734
 runc version: v1.2.5-0-g59923ef
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: unconfined
 Kernel Version: 5.15.167.4-microsoft-standard-WSL2
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 1
 Total Memory: 7.761GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: 45a06112-7908-45bc-a705-f67815c99a48
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Labels:
  com.docker.desktop.address=unix:///var/run/docker-cli.sock
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

WARNING: No blkio throttle.read_bps_device support
WARNING: No blkio throttle.write_bps_device support
WARNING: No blkio throttle.read_iops_device support
WARNING: No blkio throttle.write_iops_device support
WARNING: DOCKER_INSECURE_NO_IPTABLES_RAW is set
WARNING: daemon is not using the default seccomp profile

Anything else?

No response

[ndeloof]

We just introduced some additional diagnostic for git remote resources.
Please clone this repo, run make install to get compose built from sources, then run your command again with --verbose flag to get git command output. It might be necessary to cleanup local cache (%LOCALAPPDATA%/cache/docker-compose or %USER%/AppData/Local/cache/docker-compose)

[grzegorzb1990]

Thank you for your prompt response and for providing additional diagnostics to address the issue. Unfortunately, after following your recommendations, the problem persists.

Steps Taken:

1. Cloned the Repository and Built Compose from Source:

   git clone https://github.com/docker/compose.git
   cd compose
   git rev-parse HEAD
       c83f1285a88f5b772b32969285ad9e0b6c6867db
   make
      GO111MODULE=on go build  -trimpath -tags "e2e" -ldflags "-w -X 
      github.com/docker/compose/v2/internal.Version=v2.35.0-2-gc83f1285a.m" -o "./bin/build/docker-compose" ./cmd
      go: downloading github.com/compose-spec/compose-go/v2 v2.6.0
      go: downloading github.com/moby/sys/atomicwriter v0.1.0
   sudo cp bin/build/docker-compose /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

2. Cleared Local Cache

3. Verified Docker Compose Version:

docker-compose version
   Docker Compose version v2.35.0-2-gc83f1285a.m

4. Executed the docker-compose up Command with Verbose and Debug Flags:

COMPOSE_EXPERIMENTAL_GIT_REMOTE=true docker-compose --verbose -f app/docker-compose.yml up
    DEBU[0000] Enabled Docker Desktop integration (experimental) @ unix:///var/run/docker-cli.sock 
    DEBU[0000] otel error                                    error="<nil>"
    DEBU[0000] otel error                                    error="<nil>"
    exit status 128

Despite enabling detailed Git tracing and debugging, the output does not provide additional insights into the root cause of the failure.

[glours]

Hello @grzegorzb1990

I tried to reproduce, but without experiencing the same behaviour (on Mac first, I'll try on a Windows machin soon)

~/tmp/issue-12714 > bat --decorations=never compose.yaml                                                                                                                                                                              11:29:23
services:
  hello_world:
    image: hello-world
include:
 - git@github.com:conduktor/kafka-stack-docker-compose.git#master:zk-single-kafka-single.yml

~/tmp/issue-12714 > GIT_TRACE=2 GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=2 GIT_TRACE_PERFORMANCE=2 GIT_TRACE_PACK_ACCESS=2 GIT_TRACE_PACKET=2 GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE=2 GIT_TRACE_SETUP=2 GIT_TRACE_SHALLOW=2 COMPOSE_EXPERIMENTAL_GIT_REMOTE=1 docker compose up  11:29:28
[+] Running 19/21
 ✔ hello_world Pulled                                                                                                                                                                                                                    12.9s
   ✔ c9c5fd25a1bd Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           9.9s
 ✔ zoo1 Pulled                                                                                                                                                                                                                           38.9s
   ✔ 9351faf05db1 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.5s
   ✔ 7e732d40e412 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                          37.3s
 ✔ kafka1 Pulled                                                                                                                                                                                                                         38.8s
   ✔ 53b4abd6ab25 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
   ⠼ a86352c4b8c9 Extracting  5 s                                                                                                                                                                                                        37.4s
   ✔ cfdb71e16ce9 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
   ✔ 56f6649379c4 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                          37.3s
   ✔ 72814fd5e773 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
   ✔ 1d6620ad2620 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
   ✔ 28c50053fee4 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
   ✔ 58ab7c52b6eb Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
   ✔ 06bcf4799fa0 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
   ✔ a9b3152af175 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
   ✔ 37c3c8e73856 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                          36.6s
   ✔ c1d0409f073a Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
   ⠼ 5d8104095c0c Extracting  1 s                                                                                                                                                                                                        37.4s
   ✔ dccb7daaa261 Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
   ✔ 3d241e90165b Pull complete                                                                                                                                                                                                           7.6s
[+] Running 4/4
 ✔ Network issue-12714_default          Created                                                                                                                                                                                           0.0s
 ✔ Container zoo1                       Created                                                                                                                                                                                           0.4s
 ✔ Container issue-12714-hello_world-1  Created                                                                                                                                                                                           0.4s
 ✔ Container kafka1                     Created                                                                                                                                                                                           0.1s
Attaching to hello_world-1, kafka1, zoo1
hello_world-1  |
hello_world-1  | Hello from Docker!
hello_world-1  | This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.
hello_world-1  |
hello_world-1  | To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
hello_world-1  |  1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
hello_world-1  |  2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
hello_world-1  |     (arm64v8)
hello_world-1  |  3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
hello_world-1  |     executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
hello_world-1  |  4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
hello_world-1  |     to your terminal.
hello_world-1  |
hello_world-1  | To try something more ambitious, you can run an Ubuntu container with:
hello_world-1  |  $ docker run -it ubuntu bash
hello_world-1  |
zoo1           | ===> User
hello_world-1  | Share images, automate workflows, and more with a free Docker ID:
zoo1           | uid=1000(appuser) gid=1000(appuser) groups=1000(appuser)
hello_world-1  |  https://hub.docker.com/
zoo1           | ===> Configuring ...
hello_world-1  |
hello_world-1  | For more examples and ideas, visit:
hello_world-1  |  https://docs.docker.com/get-started/
hello_world-1  |
hello_world-1 exited with code 0
kafka1         | ===> User
kafka1         | uid=1000(appuser) gid=1000(appuser) groups=1000(appuser)
kafka1         | ===> Configuring ...
kafka1         | Running in Zookeeper mode...
zoo1           | ===> Running preflight checks ...
zoo1           | ===> Check if /var/lib/zookeeper/data is writable ...
kafka1         | ===> Running preflight checks ...
kafka1         | ===> Check if /var/lib/kafka/data is writable ...
zoo1           | ===> Check if /var/lib/zookeeper/log is writable ...
kafka1         | ===> Check if Zookeeper is healthy ...
zoo1           | ===> Launching ...
zoo1           | ===> Printing /var/lib/zookeeper/data/myid
zoo1           | 1===> Launching zookeeper ...
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:15,620] INFO Client environment:zookeeper.version=3.8.4-9316c2a7a97e1666d8f4593f34dd6fc36ecc436c, built on 2024-02-12 22:16 UTC (org.apache.zookeeper.ZooKeeper)
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:15,620] INFO Client environment:host.name=kafka1 (org.apache.zookeeper.ZooKeeper)
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:15,620] INFO Client environment:java.version=17.0.12 (org.apache.zookeeper.ZooKeeper)
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:15,620] INFO Client environment:java.vendor=Eclipse Adoptium (org.apache.zookeeper.ZooKeeper)
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:15,620] INFO Client environment:java.home=/usr/lib/jvm/temurin-17-jre (org.apache.zookeeper.ZooKeeper)
...
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:17,812] INFO Kafka startTimeMs: 1744623017810 (org.apache.kafka.common.utils.AppInfoParser)
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:17,813] INFO [KafkaServer id=1] started (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:17,859] INFO [RequestSendThread controllerId=1] Controller 1 connected to kafka1:19092 (id: 1 rack: null) for sending state change requests (kafka.controller.RequestSendThread)
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:17,940] INFO [zk-broker-1-to-controller-forwarding-channel-manager]: Recorded new ZK controller, from now on will use node kafka1:19092 (id: 1 rack: null) (kafka.server.NodeToControllerRequestThread)
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:17,964] INFO [zk-broker-1-to-controller-alter-partition-channel-manager]: Recorded new ZK controller, from now on will use node kafka1:19092 (id: 1 rack: null) (kafka.server.NodeToControllerRequestThread)
kafka1         | [2025-04-14 09:30:22,761] INFO [Controller id=1] Processing automatic preferred replica leader election (kafka.controller.KafkaController)

Can you check the output of GIT_TRACE=2 GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=2 GIT_TRACE_PERFORMANCE=2 GIT_TRACE_PACK_ACCESS=2 GIT_TRACE_PACKET=2 GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE=2 GIT_TRACE_SETUP=2 GIT_TRACE_SHALLOW=2 COMPOSE_EXPERIMENTAL_GIT_REMOTE=1 docker-compose --debug -f docker-compose.yml config ?

Do you have the same issue if you're cloning the repository and run directly

GIT_TRACE=2 GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=2 GIT_TRACE_PERFORMANCE=2 GIT_TRACE_PACK_ACCESS=2 GIT_TRACE_PACKET=2 GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE=2 GIT_TRACE_SETUP=2 GIT_TRACE_SHALLOW=2 COMPOSE_EXPERIMENTAL_GIT_REMOTE=1 docker-compose --debug -f zk-single-kafka-single.yml up -d`

Can you also check Compose downloaded properly the project, as mentionned by ndeloof, here %LOCALAPPDATA%/cache/docker-compose or here %USER%/AppData/Local/cache/docker-compose