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[docs-scanner] Conflicting guidance on when to use overlay2 vs containerd

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
75/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Domain
documentation

Research direction

The issue points to two specific files: content/manuals/engine/storage/drivers/select-storage-driver.md and content/manuals/engine/storage/drivers/overlayfs-driver.md. Start by reading these files to understand the current conflicting guidance. Then, draft a clear decision section for the select-storage-driver page, explaining when to use overlay2 vs containerd, and update the overlayfs-driver page to clarify its statement. Verify the changes by building the docs locally or checking the rendered output.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Files:

  • content/manuals/engine/storage/drivers/select-storage-driver.md
  • content/manuals/engine/storage/drivers/overlayfs-driver.md
Issue

The select-storage-driver page says:

For systems using classic storage drivers, overlay2 provides broad compatibility across Linux distributions. Use Docker volumes for write-heavy workloads instead of relying on writing data to the container's writable layer.

This guidance presents overlay2 as a recommended choice "for systems using classic storage drivers," but doesn't explain when or why a user would choose to use classic storage drivers instead of the containerd image store (the default for 29.0+).

Meanwhile, overlayfs-driver.md says:

In most cases you should use the overlay2 storage driver - it's not required to use the btrfs storage driver simply because your system uses Btrfs as its root filesystem.

But then immediately contradicts this with:

Docker Engine 29.0 and later uses the containerd image store by default. The overlay2 driver is a legacy storage driver that is superseded by the overlayfs containerd snapshotter.

Why this matters

A reader following these pages will be confused about whether they should be using overlay2 or the containerd image store. The guidance says "in most cases you should use overlay2" but then says it's "legacy" and "superseded." There's no clear decision tree for when to use which system.

Suggested fix

Add a clear decision section to select-storage-driver.md that explains:

  • Docker Engine 29.0+ uses containerd image store by default for fresh installations (recommended)
  • Classic storage drivers (including overlay2) are still available for:
    • Systems upgraded from earlier versions that haven't migrated
    • Specific compatibility requirements (list them if any exist)
  • How to determine which system you're currently using
  • When and why you might need to stay on classic storage drivers vs migrating to containerd

Remove or update the "in most cases you should use overlay2" statement in overlayfs-driver.md to clarify it only applies to users who must use classic storage drivers.


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