dockermemory-leaksdocker-for-mac

docker for mac memory usage in com.docker.hyperkit

I'm running docker desktop community 2.1.0.3 on MacOS Mojave. I've got 8GB of memory allocated to Docker, which already seems like a lot (that's half my RAM). Somehow even after exiting and then starting Docker for Mac again, which means no containers are running, docker is already exceeding the memory allocation by 1GB.

What is expected memory usage for docker with no containers running? Is there a memory leak in docker for mac or docker's hyperkit?

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docker for mac memory leak

Solution

  • As @GabLeRoux has shared in a comment, the "Real Memory" usage is much lower than what you see in the "Memory" column in Activity Monitor.

    This document thoroughly explains memory usage on Mac OS with Docker Desktop and information is excerpted from there.

    To see the "Real Memory" used by Docker, right-click the column names in Activity Monitor and Select "Real Memory". The value in this column is what's currently physically allocated to com.docker.hyperkit.

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