docker failed to register layer: fatal error: runtime: out of memory

Problem

(venv1) root@iZj6ce37h7iziv3scfs8w8Z:/opt/apps/odoo/docker# docker pull odoo
Using default tag: latest
latest: Pulling from library/odoo
69692152171a: Pull complete
2a4b0e38652c: Pull complete
a9893a9d4028: Pull complete
2646c61bff1d: Extracting [==================================================>]  906.3kB/906.3kB
bc1367e90a02: Download complete
880f2a124af8: Download complete
f4ca879da81b: Download complete
17a4f26098ff: Download complete
8b689ed50b09: Download complete
failed to register layer: Error processing tar file(exit status 2): fatal error: runtime: out of memory

runtime stack:
runtime.throw(0x556b8e5ebb8c, 0x16)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/panic.go:774 +0x74 fp=0x7ffe9e3826c8 sp=0x7ffe9e382698 pc=0x556b8ca1fe44
runtime.sysMap(0xc000000000, 0x4000000, 0x556b90dc0b98)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/mem_linux.go:169 +0xc7 fp=0x7ffe9e382708 sp=0x7ffe9e3826c8 pc=0x556b8ca08b97
runtime.(*mheap).sysAlloc(0x556b90da4280, 0x2000, 0x0, 0x0)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/malloc.go:701 +0x1cf fp=0x7ffe9e3827b0 sp=0x7ffe9e382708 pc=0x556b8c9fbb2f
runtime.(*mheap).grow(0x556b90da4280, 0x1, 0xffffffff)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/mheap.go:1255 +0xa5 fp=0x7ffe9e382800 sp=0x7ffe9e3827b0 pc=0x556b8ca16d35
runtime.(*mheap).allocSpanLocked(0x556b90da4280, 0x1, 0x556b90dc0ba8, 0x1)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/mheap.go:1170 +0x268 fp=0x7ffe9e382880 sp=0x7ffe9e382800 pc=0x556b8ca16bc8
runtime.(*mheap).alloc_m(0x556b90da4280, 0x1, 0x556b8ca4002a, 0x0)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/mheap.go:1022 +0xc6 fp=0x7ffe9e3828d0 sp=0x7ffe9e382880 pc=0x556b8ca16466
runtime.(*mheap).alloc.func1()
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/mheap.go:1093 +0x4e fp=0x7ffe9e382908 sp=0x7ffe9e3828d0 pc=0x556b8ca4c19e
runtime.(*mheap).alloc(0x556b90da4280, 0x1, 0x1002a, 0x40000)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/mheap.go:1092 +0x8c fp=0x7ffe9e382958 sp=0x7ffe9e382908 pc=0x556b8ca1674c
runtime.(*mcentral).grow(0x556b90da50b8, 0x0)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/mcentral.go:255 +0x7d fp=0x7ffe9e382998 sp=0x7ffe9e382958 pc=0x556b8ca085bd
runtime.(*mcentral).cacheSpan(0x556b90da50b8, 0x7fa53f17e000)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/mcentral.go:106 +0x300 fp=0x7ffe9e3829f8 sp=0x7ffe9e382998 pc=0x556b8ca080e0
runtime.(*mcache).refill(0x7fa53f17e008, 0x2a)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/mcache.go:138 +0x87 fp=0x7ffe9e382a18 sp=0x7ffe9e3829f8 pc=0x556b8ca07b77
runtime.(*mcache).nextFree(0x7fa53f17e008, 0x556b90dc0b2a, 0x7fa53f17e008, 0x8, 0xfffffffffffffff8)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/malloc.go:854 +0x89 fp=0x7ffe9e382a50 sp=0x7ffe9e382a18 pc=0x556b8c9fc359
runtime.mallocgc(0x180, 0x556b8f90ab60, 0x1, 0x556b90dc0c00)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/malloc.go:1022 +0x7a5 fp=0x7ffe9e382af0 sp=0x7ffe9e382a50 pc=0x556b8c9fcca5
runtime.newobject(0x556b8f90ab60, 0x4000)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/malloc.go:1151 +0x3a fp=0x7ffe9e382b20 sp=0x7ffe9e382af0 pc=0x556b8c9fd0aa
runtime.malg(0x657ad600008000, 0x556b90da6928)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/proc.go:3238 +0x33 fp=0x7ffe9e382b60 sp=0x7ffe9e382b20 pc=0x556b8ca293d3
runtime.mpreinit(...)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/os_linux.go:324
runtime.mcommoninit(0x556b90d9ed40)

Solution

The correct way to solve this problem is to move the docker data directory to another location where there is sufficient space. In my case this was my home partition.

To do that I had to create a daemon.json file in /etc/docker and add the following lines to it:

{
    "data-root": "/opt/apps/docker_data"
}

Then restart the docker service, if you are suing systemd this should be:

systemctl restart docker