[BUG] Compose v5.0.1 missing macOS fsevents, causing "too many open files" crash

[SystematicCZ]

Description

docker compose watch immediately crashes with too many open files with compose v5.0.1.

The docker-compose binary appears to be compiled without the macOS-specific build tag. The watcher falls back to the generic watcher, which opens a file descriptor for every single subdirectory (including ignored ones like vendor/), instantly exhausting the OS file limit.

Output of strings ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose | grep "fsevents" is empty on 5.0.1
But on 5.0.0

github.com/fsnotify/fsevents
*fsevents.Event
*[]fsevents.Event
*fsevents.EventFlags
*fsevents._Ctype_int
*fsevents.CreateFlags
*fsevents._Ctype_long
*fsevents._Ctype_uint
*fsevents._Ctype_char
...

Probably related to this #13452

When I manually download compose version v5.0.0 everything works.

Expected behavior

• do not crash with notify.Add("...packages-php"): watcher.Add("...packages-php/apps/application/src/Offer/DTO"): too many open files

Steps To Reproduce

• Update to docker compose 5.0.1
• Run docker compose up --watch on a project with a large directory structure (e.g. PHP vendor/), even if the folder is listed in ignore.

Compose Version

Docker Compose version v5.0.1

Docker Environment

Client:
 Version: 29.1.3
 Context: desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
 ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v1.17.1
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-ai
 buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.30.1-desktop.1
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
 compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v5.0.1
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
 debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
 Version: 0.0.47
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-debug
 desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.2.0
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-desktop
 extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.2.31
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension
 init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v1.4.0
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init
 mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.35.0
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-mcp
 model: Docker Model Runner (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v1.0.6
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-model
 offload: Docker Offload (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.5.40
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-offload
 pass: Docker Pass Secrets Manager Plugin (beta) (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.0.22
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-pass
 sandbox: Docker Sandbox (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v0.6.0
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sandbox
 sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
 Version: 0.6.0
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
 scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
 Version: v1.19.0
 Path: /Users/marek/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout

Server:
 Containers: 13
 Running: 11
 Paused: 0
 Stopped: 2
 Images: 29
 Server Version: 29.1.3
 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: 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: active
 NodeID: n1zalw918d6f8ke2yem1rtzve
 Is Manager: true
 ClusterID: m482x04rf5nbkese6hls5i3bi
 Managers: 1
 Nodes: 1
 Default Address Pool: 10.0.0.0/8 
 SubnetSize: 24
 Data Path Port: 4789
 Orchestration:
 Task History Retention Limit: 5
 Raft:
 Snapshot Interval: 10000
 Number of Old Snapshots to Retain: 0
 Heartbeat Tick: 1
 Election Tick: 10
 Dispatcher:
 Heartbeat Period: 5 seconds
 CA Configuration:
 Expiry Duration: 3 months
 Force Rotate: 0
 Autolock Managers: false
 Root Rotation In Progress: false
 Node Address: 192.168.65.3
 Manager Addresses:
 192.168.65.3:2377
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: dea7da592f5d1d2b7755e3a161be07f43fad8f75
 runc version: v1.3.4-0-gd6d73eb8
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
 seccomp
 Profile: builtin
 cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.12.54-linuxkit
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: aarch64
 CPUs: 8
 Total Memory: 7.751GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: b415a42f-26af-4625-ac0e-348c86ce9989
 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/marek/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
 Firewall Backend: iptables

Anything else?

No response

[SystematicCZ]

I have created this repo which simulates the bug.

https://github.com/SystematicCZ/watch-bug

[FabianClemenz]

i have exactly this issue right now and unable to resolve it because i can't downgrade to 5.0.0

[SystematicCZ]

The bug is fixed #13532 but new version of Docker Desktop for Mac was not released yet.

I deleted the compose plugin from .docker/cli-plugins and downloaded the working binary from this repo. Otherwise you need to wait and I dont know when the new versions of docker desktop are created. Seems pretty random