[BUG] "docker compose up --watch" no longer displays build log when 'rebuild' action triggers

[coredumperror]

Description

I've been using docker compose up --watch for a while now, and I love it. But ever since some time last week (maybe earlier), the build log for my image builds no longer displays when a rebuild action triggers. I just get this:

 ⦿ Rebuilding service(s) ["multitenant" "multitenant_www"] after changes were detected...
[+] Building 0.0s (0/0)
 ⦿ service(s) ["multitenant" "multitenant_www"] successfully built

Steps To Reproduce

With this docker-compose.yml (truncated significantly):

services:
 multitenant:
 image: image_name
 ...
 build:
 context: .
 tags:
 - multitenant:6.8.3
 - multitenant:latest
 develop:
 watch:
 # Sync the working directory with the /multitenant directory in the container.
 - action: sync
 path: .
 target: /multitenant
 ignore:
 # Ignore all migrations directories, because those are controlled by the volume mounts below.
 - "**/migrations"
 ...
 - action: rebuild
 path: ./Dockerfile

 multitenant_www:
 image: image_name
 ...
 build:
 context: .
 tags:
 - multitenant:6.8.3
 - multitenant:latest
 develop:
 watch:
 # Sync the working directory with the /multitenant directory in the container.
 - action: sync
 path: .
 target: /multitenant
 ignore:
 # Ignore all migrations directories, because those are controlled by the volume mounts below.
 - "**/migrations"
 ...
 - action: rebuild
 path: ./Dockerfile

I get the following output when I update the Dockerfile:

 ⦿ Rebuilding service(s) ["multitenant" "multitenant_www"] after changes were detected...
[+] Building 0.0s (0/0)
 ⦿ service(s) ["multitenant" "multitenant_www"] successfully built

I expect that Building 0.0s (0/0) to instead be an entire build log for the image.

Compose Version

$ docker compose version
Docker Compose version v2.38.2-desktop.1



$ docker-compose version
Docker Compose version v2.38.1-desktop.1

Huh... weird that one is a slightly different version.

Docker Environment

$ docker info
Client:
 Version: 28.3.0
 Context: desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
 ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v1.8.0
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-ai
 buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.25.0-desktop.1
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
 cloud: Docker Cloud (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.4.2
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-cloud
 compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v2.38.2-desktop.1
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
 debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
 Version: 0.0.41
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-debug
 desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.1.11
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-desktop
 extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.2.29
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension
 init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v1.4.0
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init
 mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.9.8
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-mcp
 model: Docker Model Runner (EXPERIMENTAL) (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.1.33
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-model
 sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
 Version: 0.6.0
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
 scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v1.18.1
 Path: /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout
WARNING: Plugin "/Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev: no such file or directory

Server:
 Containers: 5
 Running: 5
 Paused: 0
 Stopped: 0
 Images: 49
 Server Version: 28.3.0
 Storage Driver: overlayfs
 driver-type: io.containerd.snapshotter.v1
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 2
 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
 Discovered Devices:
 cdi: docker.com/gpu=webgpu
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: 05044ec0a9a75232cad458027ca83437aae3f4da
 runc version: v1.2.5-0-g59923ef
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
 seccomp
 Profile: builtin
 cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.10.14-linuxkit
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: aarch64
 CPUs: 12
 Total Memory: 15.6GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: e5241bbe-0e6f-45ae-90a3-9efa3f3d0185
 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:///Users/rrollins/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/docker-cli.sock
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
 hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
 ::1/128
 127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

WARNING: DOCKER_INSECURE_NO_IPTABLES_RAW is set

Anything else?

Using docker compose watch instead doesn't help.

I'm going to try installing older versions of Docker Desktop for Mac until I find one that fixes this.

[coredumperror]

Unfortunately, my experiment with earlier versions was a failure. Installing anything older than 4.43.0 caused a crash on startup related to the version of something called docker-mcp... It was saying that it didn't recognize the version "vdev", or something like that. I'm on MacOS Sequoia 15.5, in case that's relevant.

[ndeloof]

docker compose up --watch does not display build logs as this would be mixed with services logs, creating conflicts for buildkit UI to acquire the terminal and display build status.
If you want all build details you could use docker compose up watch to only focus on watch events.
I wonder: why do you rely on build logs here ? Isn't this enough for you to know image has been rebuilt and service recreated ?

[coredumperror]

I just like seeing the progress of the build as it goes, so I know that something is happening. A complete lack of any output during what might be a several minute build process just makes me think it's broken.

And I'm used to it doing that, because it formerly did so.

[ndeloof]

it formerly did so.

which version did you used before ?
AFAICT --watch always behave like this (maybe you used docker compose watch command?)

[coredumperror]

I didn't know that docker compose watch existed until after docker compose up --watch stopped showing the build log, and I went looking for solutions. I'd tell you which version I was using where it showed the log, but I can't get earlier versions of Docker to work properly on my mac (as mentioned above), so I can't figure out which version did it.