[nicksieger]

Summary

• docker --help run <image> (and create) runs the container instead of printing usage, because a leading --help is parsed and consumed as the root's persistent help flag before the subcommand sees its args
• This works fine for most subcommands, which share the same help flag object with the root, but run/create each register their own local help flag (without -h, to avoid a shorthand clash with --hostname), which shadows the root's and never observes the value
• HandleGlobalFlags now propagates the parsed --help value into a subcommand's local help flag when one shadows the root's, so docker --help run <image> behaves like docker run --help

Fixes #7473

Test plan

• Added TestHandleGlobalFlagsHelpPropagation in cli/cobra_test.go
• Manually verified against a built binary: --help run <image>, --help create <image>, and --cloud --help run <image> now print help without pulling/running anything
• Manually verified run --help, --help ps, bare --help, and plain run <image> are unaffected

[codecov-commenter]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.

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[docker-agent]

Assessment: 🟢 APPROVE

The propagation logic in HandleGlobalFlags is conceptually correct and addresses the targeted bug. The cmd.Find(args) / Lookup("help") / Set("help", "true") chain is sound for the run/create subcommands. No high- or medium-severity issues were found.

Lower-confidence findings (not posted inline)

• [low] cli/cobra.go:182 — Error from sub.Flags().Set() is silently discarded (confidence: unverified low)
  The _ = sub.Flags().Set("help", "true") call discards any error. The Lookup guard makes a failure extremely unlikely, but a debug log or comment noting why the error is intentionally ignored would improve maintainability.

• [low] cli/cobra.go:180 — cmd.Find() error path silently skips --help propagation (confidence: unverified low)
  When cmd.Find(args) returns a non-nil error the propagation is silently skipped. This is unreachable for run/create in practice, but a future subcommand with a local help shadow flag and no Args validator while also having subcommands could silently fail to propagate --help. A code comment noting this limitation would help future maintainers.

• [low] cli/cobra_test.go:128 — Test does not cover -h shorthand path (confidence: unverified low)
  The test exercises --help run hello-world but not -h run hello-world. Adding a parallel sub-test for the shorthand would catch any future regression that accidentally drops the shorthand binding from the root's PersistentFlags.