GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

STATUSCHECK_CONTAINER_RESTARTING

STATUSCHECK_CONTAINER_RESTARTING

Error message

container %s is backing off waiting to restart

What it means

Raised when a container's Waiting state has reason CrashLoopBackOff (code STATUSCHECK_CONTAINER_RESTARTING): the container keeps crashing and kubelet is backing off before restarting it. Skaffold fetches logs from the last attempt so the original failure is visible.

Source

Thrown at pkg/diag/validator/validator.go:369

			return p.ae.Message
		}
	}
	return fmt.Sprintf(actionableMessage, p.namespace, p.name)
}

func extractErrorMessageFromWaitingContainerStatus(po *v1.Pod, c v1.ContainerStatus) (proto.StatusCode, []string, error) {
	// Extract meaning full error out of container statuses.
	switch c.State.Waiting.Reason {
	case podInitializing:
		// container is waiting to run. This could be because one of the init containers is
		// still not completed
		return proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_POD_INITIALIZING, nil, nil
	case containerCreating:
		return proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_CONTAINER_CREATING, nil, fmt.Errorf("creating container %s", c.Name)
	case crashLoopBackOff:
		// TODO, in case of container restarting, return the original failure reason due to which container failed.
		sc, l := getPodLogs(po, c.Name, proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_CONTAINER_RESTARTING)
		return sc, l, fmt.Errorf("container %s is backing off waiting to restart", c.Name)
	case ImagePullErr, ImagePullBackOff, ErrImagePullBackOff:
		return proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_IMAGE_PULL_ERR, nil, fmt.Errorf("container %s is waiting to start: %s can't be pulled", c.Name, c.Image)
	case runContainerError:
		match := runContainerRe.FindStringSubmatch(c.State.Waiting.Message)
		if len(match) != 0 {
			return proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_RUN_CONTAINER_ERR, nil, fmt.Errorf("container %s in error: %s", c.Name, trimSpace(match[3]))
		}
	}
	log.Entry(context.TODO()).Debugf("Unknown waiting reason for container %q: %v", c.Name, c.State)
	return proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_CONTAINER_WAITING_UNKNOWN, nil, fmt.Errorf("container %s in error: %v", c.Name, c.State.Waiting)
}

func newPodStatus(n string, ns string, p string) *podStatus {
	return &podStatus{
		name:      n,
		namespace: ns,
		phase:     p,
		ae: proto.ActionableErr{

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Read the captured logs (or kubectl logs <pod> --previous -c <container>) to find the original crash cause and fix it.
2. Check liveness/readiness probes: overly aggressive initialDelaySeconds/periodSeconds can kill slow-starting apps; tune them.
3. Verify required env vars, secrets, config maps, and dependency endpoints are present and reachable.
4. kubectl describe pod to confirm restartCount and reason, then fix the command/args or image entrypoint.

Example fix

// before: liveness probe kills slow starter
// livenessProbe: {httpGet: {path: /healthz, port: 8080}, initialDelaySeconds: 1}
// after
// livenessProbe: {httpGet: {path: /healthz, port: 8080}, initialDelaySeconds: 30, failureThreshold: 5}

if cs.State.Waiting != nil && cs.State.Waiting.Reason == "CrashLoopBackOff" { prev, _ := client.CoreV1().Pods(ns).GetLogs(pod.Name, &v1.PodLogOptions{Container: cs.Name, Previous: true}).Stream(ctx); dump(prev) }

func isCrashLooping(cs v1.ContainerStatus) bool { return cs.State.Waiting != nil && cs.State.Waiting.Reason == "CrashLoopBackOff" }

sc, logs, err := getContainerStatus(pod, cs); if sc == proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_CONTAINER_RESTARTING { return fmt.Errorf("crash loop, last logs:\n%s", strings.Join(logs, "\n")) }

When it happens

Trigger: extractErrorMessageFromWaitingContainerStatus matches crashLoopBackOff in the Waiting reason, calls getPodLogs, and returns 'container <name> is backing off waiting to restart'; reached from getContainerStatus/getPodStatus.

Common situations: App crashes at startup (bad config, missing env var/secret, unreachable dependency), failing liveness probes restarting a healthy-but-slow app, wrong command/args, port conflicts, exit-on-error scripts.

Related errors

• pod has failed
• STATUSCHECK_POD_INITIALIZING
• waiting for init container %s to complete
• STATUSCHECK_UNKNOWN
• STATUSCHECK_CONTAINER_TERMINATED

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/60a88a5552651a21. Report an issue: GitHub.