Skip to main content
Version: v0.36.0

Troubleshooting

Missing External Tools​

When you run regis, it requires certain external binaries depending on which analyzers you use.

Error symptoms:

  • Command 'regctl' not found
  • Command 'grype' not found
  • Command 'syft' not found
  • Command 'trufflehog' not found
  • Command 'hadolint' not found
  • Command 'dockle' not found

Solution:

  1. Run regis check to diagnose which tools are missing:

    regis check

  2. Follow the installation instructions in Getting Started to install the missing tools.

  3. Using Docker is the easiest path—the official image comes pre-packaged with all dependencies:

    docker run --rm trivoallan/regis analyze nginx:latest

Registry Authentication Errors​

When analyzing private container images, you may encounter authentication failures.

Error symptoms:

  • 401 Unauthorized
  • 403 Forbidden
  • authentication required when pulling from a private registry

Solution:

regis uses the same authentication mechanisms as regctl and Docker:

  1. Docker login (most common):

    docker login registry.example.com
    regis analyze registry.example.com/myapp:v1.0

  2. Podman login:

    podman login registry.example.com
    regis analyze registry.example.com/myapp:v1.0

  3. Environment variables (for CI/CD):

    • Configure Docker credentials (docker login) before running regis; regctl reads the same credential store.

If you're using a custom authentication mechanism, consult Registries for advanced configuration options.

Timeout or Network Errors​

When analyzing very large images or connecting to slow registries, you may encounter timeouts.

Error symptoms:

  • connection timed out
  • i/o timeout
  • Analysis hangs on large images

Solutions:

  1. Run in serial mode to reduce concurrent load:

    regis analyze myimage:latest --max-workers 1

  2. Check your network connection to the registry. Large images can take minutes to pull metadata.

  3. For very large images, consider analyzing during off-peak hours or splitting the analysis across multiple runs.

Report Generation Issues​

Problems with the --html report or an empty/blank report file.

Error symptoms:

  • --html produces an empty or partial report.html
  • The JSON report is missing expected analyzer data

Solutions:

  1. Generate a self-contained HTML report with --html. It writes a single portable report.html that needs no base URL or web server:

    regis analyze nginx:latest --html

  2. Review the JSON report to ensure the analysis succeeded:

    regis analyze nginx:latest -o report.json
    cat report.json | jq .

For detailed information on how reports work, see Reports.

Playbook Evaluation Issues​

Rules marked as "incomplete" or unexpected scores.

Error symptoms:

  • Rules status shows incomplete instead of pass or fail
  • Scores don't match expected values
  • Rule conditions reference missing analyzer data

Solutions:

  1. Verify the analyzer ran. Incomplete rules indicate that the data they depend on was not generated. Check which analyzers participated in the run:

    regis analyze myimage:latest -o report.json
    cat report.json | jq '.analyzers | keys'

  2. Ensure your playbook doesn't reference non-existent analyzers. For example, if you include a cve rule but didn't run the cve analyzer, the rule will be incomplete.

  3. Check your rule conditions in your playbook. If a rule accesses a field that an analyzer didn't populate, it will be marked incomplete rather than failed.

For detailed information on rule evaluation, see Rules and Scoring.

FAQ​

What registries does Regis support?​

Regis supports any OCI-compliant container registry (Docker Hub, Quay.io, ECR, GCR, Azure Container Registry, your private registry, etc.). As long as the image reference is valid and you have authentication, Regis can analyze it.

What image formats are supported?​

Regis supports standard OCI container images. It does not support:

  • Image archives in Docker .tar format
  • Helm charts or other packaging formats
  • Non-container artifacts

For local images, use the full reference: docker.io/library/nginx:latest or localhost:5000/myimage:v1.

How do I run only specific analyzers?​

Use the -a or --analyzer flag to limit which analyzers run:

# Run only CVE scanning and OCI metadata
regis analyze myimage:latest -a cve -a oci

This is useful when you only care about specific security checks or want to speed up analysis.

How do I get verbose output?​

Use the --verbose flag or set the REGIS_LOG_LEVEL environment variable:

# Verbose mode
regis analyze myimage:latest --verbose

# Debug logging
REGIS_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG regis analyze myimage:latest

This will output detailed information about each analyzer's execution, registry calls, and rule evaluation.

Can I run Regis in a CI/CD pipeline?​

Yes. Regis is designed for CI/CD. Use Docker for simplicity:

docker run --rm \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  trivoallan/regis analyze myimage:latest --html

Then collect the generated report.html (and report.json) as a CI artifact. See the GitHub and GitLab integration guides for more details.