How to add the current user to the Docker group on macOS?

Question

I am trying to follow this post, adding the current user to the Docker group:

sudo usermod -aG docker $(whoami)

but of course, there is no usermod command on macOS:

-bash: usermod: command not found

Now I was wondering if there is an equivalent of the above command on macOS? Probably using dscl?

P.S.1. I have used these instructions to set up Docker and docker-machine.

P.S.2. This question is not about Visual Studio Code (VSCode) in particular, but if I open a new terminal and run eval "$(docker-machine env default)" and then run VSCode with code the problem is solved.

Answer 1

This question, as others have also pointed out, is irrelevant. The process of adding a user to the docker group is only necessary on Linux where sudo privileges are required to run Docker commands, as explained here. On macOS, and using docker-machine, that is unnecessary.

---

But if one wants to add a user, or more specifically the current user, to the docker user group, for whatever reason, here are the instructions:

• List the existing user groups with dscl . list /groups from here
• To create a user group, if it doesn't exist use the command sudo dscl . create /Groups/<groupName> from here.
• In the context of this discussion the <groupName> could be replaced with docker.
• To add a user to a group one can use the command sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a <userName> -t user <groupName>. from here or sudo dscl . append /Groups/<groupName> GroupMembership <userName> from here.
• One can replace the <userName> with $USER or $(whoami) to refer to the current user.
• To test and see if the expected user has been added o the specific group one can use the command dscl . -read /Groups/<groupName> GroupMembership to list all the remembers. However, it is not guaranteed to deliver the correct result, as explained here.

---

And the another issue with the Visual Studio Code, also has barely anything to do with the user groups. By running the eval "$(docker-machine env <dockerMachineName>)" in a new terminal, and running the code editor from inside the terminal, the Docker extension works just fine.

Answer 2

I also had to write sudo on macOS to run docker commands (I don't know why). Thanks to Foad's explanation, I fixed it.

I just want to add commands which are ready for use. The first one creates a docker group. The second one adds the current users to the docker group.

sudo dscl . create /Groups/docker
sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a $USER -t user docker

If you need something different, read Foad S. Farimani's answer.