unexpected end of JSON input

[mohamed-foly]

trafficstars

• [yes] I have tried with the latest version of Docker Desktop
• [already disabled] I have tried disabling enabled experimental features
• [no] I have uploaded Diagnostics

Expected behavior

when open docker desktop supposed to open smoothly

Actual behavior

while using docker command line interface or docker desktop i got error "unexpected end of JSON input"

Information

• Linux distro: ubuntu
• Distro version: 20.04.4
• Docker Desktop Version: 4.11.0

[mohamed-foly]

I found that there is a file in path ~/.docker/contexts/meta/fe9c6bd7a66301f49ca9b6a70b217107cd1284598bfc254700c989b916da791e/meta.json and it was empty json file, after writing empty json object i got another error so i searched about this file and i copied a dump from documentation example and now it works. I don't know how this file got cleared and what supposed to contain based on my env

[src-r-r]

@mohamed-foly , would you be willing to share the link to the doc you found?

[archsword]

Thanks so much for posting this! I got my contexting listing again by putting this in:

{
        "Name": "default",
        "Metadata": {
                "StackOrchestrator": "swarm"
        },
        "Endpoints": {
                "docker": {
                        "Host": "unix:///var/run/docker.sock",
                        "SkipTLSVerify": false
                }
        },
        "TLSMaterial": {}
}

[mohamed-foly]

@mohamed-foly , would you be willing to share the link to the doc you found?

@src-r-r https://docs.docker.com/engine/context/working-with-contexts/#the-anatomy-of-a-context

[drawlinson]

Also experienced this issue - the meta.json file described above had become blank, meaning that all docker commands (e.g. docker ps, docker compose) didn't work; and replacing the content of the file as above restores functionality.

[bklooste]

Seeing this as well. Seen it empty or no file present. Use a laptop and network frequently changes.

[jeteve]

Same issue with the windows docker desktop: https://github.com/docker/for-win/issues/13180

[salmomascarenhas]

How does can I update default context ? I try to find the file path, but unsucessful. SO: Linux Mint

[jiafangtao]

I got the same issue. Here is what I walk-around it. FYI.

1. Use docker context create dummy to create a new context called dummy
2. Copy the meta.json content to overwrite the broken one in the context folder
3. Change the name in that meta.json
4. Then docker context list will show up all the contexts available
5. Use docker context rm dummy to remove the dummy one, and it's done.

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