Docker: unauthorized: authentication required

It’s all fun and games to build and run Docker images on your local machine, but when it comes to pushing to a remote registry, the authentication itself is a pain to dealt with. And here I am with yet another error: unauthorized: authentication required.

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Docker Hub account
• Docker Hub personal access token

Solution

Step 1. Login to Docker Hub.

docker login -u <username> 

Now, you will be prompted to insert your Docker Hub access token.

Note(s):

• If you have enabled 2FA on your Docker Hub account, you can’t use password anymore.
• Running: docker login -u <username> -p <password> or cat dockersecret.txt | docker login -u <username> --password-stdin, will simply fail leading to: Error response from daemon: Get "https://registry-1.docker.io/v2/": unauthorized: please use personal access token to login.
• Personal access tokens are the preferred way to authenticate as they provide certain advantages over passwords, including: non-admin account permission scopes for repos, usage statistics and activities.
• You can find more info about the Docker credentials and credsStore under $HOME/.docker/config.json on Linux and macOS, or %USERPROFILE%/.docker/config.json on Windows.

Step 2. Push the Docker image again. For instance:

docker push devcoops/goapi:1.2

Conclusion

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