Brew Install Docker Does Not Include Docker Engine?

The following steps work fine on macOS Sierra 10.12.4. Note that after brew installs Docker, the docker command (symbolic link) is not available at /usr/local/bin. Running the Docker app for the first time creates this symbolic link. See the detailed steps below.

1. Install Docker.

   brew install --cask docker
   

2. Launch Docker.

   • Press ⌘ + Space to bring up Spotlight Search and enter Docker to launch Docker.
   • In the Docker needs privileged access dialog box, click OK.
   • Enter password and click OK.

   When Docker is launched in this manner, a Docker whale icon appears in the status menu. As soon as the whale icon appears, the symbolic links for docker, docker-compose, docker-credential-osxkeychain and docker-machine are created in /usr/local/bin.

   $ ls -l /usr/local/bin/docker*
   lrwxr-xr-x  1 susam  domain Users  67 Apr 12 14:14 /usr/local/bin/docker -> /Users/susam/Library/Group Containers/
   lrwxr-xr-x  1 susam  domain Users  75 Apr 12 14:14 /usr/local/bin/docker-compose -> /Users/susam/Library/Group Containers/
   lrwxr-xr-x  1 susam  domain Users  90 Apr 12 14:14 /usr/local/bin/docker-credential-osxkeychain -> /Users/susam/Library/Group Containers/
   lrwxr-xr-x  1 susam  domain Users  75 Apr 12 14:14 /usr/local/bin/docker-machine -> /Users/susam/Library/Group Containers/
   

3. Click on the docker whale icon in the status menu and wait for it to show Docker is running.

4. Test that docker works fine.

   $ docker run hello-world
   Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally
   latest: Pulling from library/hello-world
   78445dd45222: Pull complete
   Digest: sha256:c5515758d4c5e1e838e9cd307f6c6a0d620b5e07e6f927b07d05f6d12a1ac8d7
   Status: Downloaded newer image for hello-world:latest
   
   Hello from Docker!
   This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.
   
   To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
    1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
    2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
    3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
       executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
    4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
       to your terminal.
   
   To try something more ambitious, you can run an Ubuntu container with:
    $ docker run -it ubuntu bash
   
   Share images, automate workflows, and more with a free Docker ID:
    
   
   For more examples and ideas, visit:
    
   
   $ docker version
   Client:
    Version:      17.03.1-ce
    API version:  1.27
    Go version:   go1.7.5
    Git commit:   c6d412e
    Built:        Tue Mar 28 00:40:02 2017
    OS/Arch:      darwin/amd64
   
   Server:
    Version:      17.03.1-ce
    API version:  1.27 (minimum version 1.12)
    Go version:   go1.7.5
    Git commit:   c6d412e
    Built:        Fri Mar 24 00:00:50 2017
    OS/Arch:      linux/amd64
    Experimental: true
   

To install Docker for Mac with homebrew:

brew install homebrew/cask/docker

To install the command line completion:

brew install bash-completion
brew install docker-completion
brew install docker-compose-completion
brew install docker-machine-completion

Docker desktop will not be installed if you run brew install docker. If you've already installed it this way, first uninstall with brew uninstall docker.

To install Docker Desktop, run:

brew install homebrew/cask/docker

Launch docker from your ~/Applications folder once and enter your password, then you can run commands like docker --version to verify the CLI is working.

For reinstall docker, you should run:

brew reinstall homebrew/cask/docker

Docker Desktop for Mac is not a suitable choice for enterprise docker users as it requires a paid license to use. Rancher Desktop is a viable open-source alternative for Docker Desktop for all three major OS.

Since this question is specifically targeted at Mac OS users, I have added the steps to make it work on Mac OS.

1. First install Docker using homebrew. brew install docker

2. Install Rancher Desktop.

3. In Kubernates Settings, change container runtime to dockerd.

Profit !