Docker 4.57+ incorrectly uses "access time" to determine when `docker compose watch` should sync changes

[coredumperror]

Description

In Docker for Mac 4.57 and 4.58, simply changing the Access Time value for a file that's tracked by a watch: directive in docker-compose.yml causes that file to be synced into the container as if it had changed. This also triggers sync+restart and even rebuild, which is the real problem.

Simply looking at a file in certain programs changes that Access Time, and if it's your project's uv.lock file, that causes docker compose watch to completely rebuild the image, wasting several minutes of work for no reason.

Reproduce

1. Run docker compose watch with a docker-compose.yml file that's set up to watch a certain file with the action: rebuild directive. For this example, I'll use the file uv.lock.
2. On the host, run touch -a uv.lock.

This incorrectly triggers a rebuild of the entire image. This also happens when using docker compose up --watch.

Expected behavior

Simply changing the Access Time should never be treated as the file having been modified, as that just means the file was read at that time, not edited.

docker version

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           29.1.5
 API version:       1.52
 Go version:        go1.25.6
 Git commit:        0e6fee6c52
 Built:             Tue Dec 16 15:33:03 2025
 OS/Arch:           darwin/arm64
 Context:           desktop-linux

Server: Docker Desktop 4.57.0 (215387)
 Engine:
  Version:          29.1.3
  API version:      1.52 (minimum version 1.44)
  Go version:       go1.25.5
  Git commit:       fbf3ed2
  Built:            Fri Dec 12 14:50:40 2025
  OS/Arch:          linux/arm64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v2.2.1
  GitCommit:        dea7da592f5d1d2b7755e3a161be07f43fad8f75
 runc:
  Version:          1.3.4
  GitCommit:        v1.3.4-0-gd6d73eb8
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

docker info

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:    29.1.5
 Context:    desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.17.1
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-ai
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.30.1-desktop.1
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v5.0.1
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.47
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-debug
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.0
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-desktop
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.31
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init
  mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.35.0
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-mcp
  model: Docker Model Runner (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.0.6
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-model
  offload: Docker Offload (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.5.40
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-offload
  pass: Docker Pass Secrets Manager Plugin (beta) (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.0.22
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-pass
  sandbox: Docker Sandbox (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.9.0
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sandbox
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.19.0
    Path:     /Users/rrollins/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout

Server:
 Containers: 6
  Running: 6
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 0
 Images: 101
 Server Version: 29.1.3
 Storage Driver: overlayfs
  driver-type: io.containerd.snapshotter.v1
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 2
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Discovered Devices:
  cdi: docker.com/gpu=webgpu
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: dea7da592f5d1d2b7755e3a161be07f43fad8f75
 runc version: v1.3.4-0-gd6d73eb8
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.12.54-linuxkit
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: aarch64
 CPUs: 12
 Total Memory: 7.653GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: 42077820-6f80-461d-86a1-c7cb9ef0c903
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Labels:
  com.docker.desktop.address=unix:///Users/rrollins/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/docker-cli.sock
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false
 Firewall Backend: iptables

Diagnostics ID

8E914AE0-F5B6-4813-ADCA-C8047D7A156F/20260129231625

Additional Info

This problem doesn't occur in Docker for Mac 4.56 or 4.55. I haven't tested any earlier, but I'm guessing they're fine.
I am on MacOS Tahoe 26.2 (25C56).