What exactly does the Docker Desktop memory limit apply to?

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The Docker Desktop for Mac docs state

By default, Docker Desktop is set to use 2 GB runtime memory, allocated from the total available memory on your Mac. To increase the RAM, set this to a higher number. To decrease it, lower the number.

https://docs.docker.com/desktop/mac/

I am unclear what this refers to. Is it the memory available to the desktop software, to the docker virtual machine, to a running container, or to something else?

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1 Answers

Docker Desktop for Mac runs a hidden Linux VM, and this setting controls the memory allocation for that VM. So this is the total memory available to all containers combined. Options like docker run -m can still set a per-container memory limit.

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