Moby: docker images reports same image in differing order

[jtmoon79]

Running sudo docker images results in an unpredictable and changing listing order for the multiply tagged docker image.

Output of docker version:

Client:
 Version:      1.12.0
 API version:  1.24
 Go version:   go1.6.3
 Git commit:   8eab29e
 Built:        Thu Jul 28 22:00:36 2016
 OS/Arch:      linux/amd64

Server:
 Version:      1.12.0
 API version:  1.24
 Go version:   go1.6.3
 Git commit:   8eab29e
 Built:        Thu Jul 28 22:00:36 2016
 OS/Arch:      linux/amd64

Output of docker info:

Containers: 25
 Running: 1
 Paused: 0
 Stopped: 24
Images: 80
Server Version: 1.12.0
Storage Driver: aufs
 Root Dir: /var/lib/docker/aufs
 Backing Filesystem: extfs
 Dirs: 177
 Dirperm1 Supported: false
Logging Driver: json-file
Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
Plugins:
 Volume: local
 Network: host bridge null overlay
Swarm: inactive
Runtimes: runc
Default Runtime: runc
Security Options: apparmor
Kernel Version: 3.13.0-92-generic
Operating System: Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS
OSType: linux
Architecture: x86_64
CPUs: 4
Total Memory: 15.62 GiB
Name: myhost
ID: WS4V:2MWJ:IWFT:AV5C:74U2:PPJB:G36B:5E3N:E3NR:OAW6:EERM:CKNW
Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
Debug Mode (client): false
Debug Mode (server): false
Registry: https://index.docker.io/v1/
WARNING: No swap limit support

Additional environment details (AWS, VirtualBox, physical, etc.):

physical

Steps to reproduce the issue:

_1_. create an empty directory for context

mkdir /tmp/my-docker

_2_. create file /tmp/my-docker/Dockerfile with contents

FROM ubuntu:trusty
# add a layer for sake of example
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y apt-utils

_3_. build a new docker instance with multiple tags

sudo docker build -t tag1 -t tag2 .

_4_. watch the output of docker images

sudo -- watch -d -- docker images

Describe the results you received:

Running sudo docker images results in an unpredictable and changing listing order for the same docker image. Sometimes the output was

REPOSITORY                      TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
tag1                            latest              e8cb1537535d        3 minutes ago       210.1 MB
tag2                            latest              e8cb1537535d        3 minutes ago       210.1 MB

then other times

REPOSITORY                      TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
tag2                            latest              e8cb1537535d        3 minutes ago       210.1 MB
tag1                            latest              e8cb1537535d        3 minutes ago       210.1 MB

Describe the results you expected:

Running sudo docker images results in a predictable and consistent listing order. By Created time and then tagging order and then ...

Additional information you deem important (e.g. issue happens only occasionally):

This did not happen with the prior version of docker which I believe was version 1.10.

[WeiZhang555]

Actually this is not only about images command, if we look at the stats command, if has similar problem.

For example, if you run docker stats -a, the output order looks consistent to docker ps -a results. Then if you start a new container, the new container will be appended at tail of the output list, it's not consistent to docker stats -a results any more.

I am working on a new flag "--sort-by" for images and ps, but I hope I can expand it to other commands.