GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · warning

unable to remove container: %w

Error message

unable to remove container: %w

What it means

localDaemon.Remove calls apiClient.ContainerRemove to delete a container by id. On failure it logs a debug line and returns "unable to remove container: %w" with the daemon error preserved. This is used during skaffold cleanup of port-forward or debug containers.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/docker/image.go:777

}

func (l *localDaemon) Stop(ctx context.Context, id string, stopTimeout *time.Duration) error {
	var so client.ContainerStopOptions
	if stopTimeout != nil {
		so.Timeout = util.Ptr[int](int(stopTimeout.Seconds()))
	}
	if _, err := l.apiClient.ContainerStop(ctx, id, so); err != nil {
		log.Entry(ctx).Debugf("unable to stop running container: %s", err.Error())
		return err
	}

	return nil
}

func (l *localDaemon) Remove(ctx context.Context, id string) error {
	if _, err := l.apiClient.ContainerRemove(ctx, id, client.ContainerRemoveOptions{}); err != nil {
		log.Entry(ctx).Debugf("unable to remove container: %s", err.Error())
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to remove container: %w", err)
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Treat 'no such container' as success — check if errdefs.IsNotFound and ignore, since the goal state is already met.
2. Pass client.ContainerRemoveOptions{Force: true} to remove running containers.
3. Verify the container id is current (`docker ps -a`) — stale ids from previous runs fail.
4. Check `docker info` if the daemon itself seems down.

Example fix

// before
client.ContainerRemoveOptions{}
// after
client.ContainerRemoveOptions{Force: true, RemoveVolumes: true}

func isNotFound(err error) bool { var nf errdefs.NotFoundError; return errors.As(err, &nf) || strings.Contains(err.Error(), "No such container") }

err := daemon.Remove(ctx, id)
if err != nil {
    if isNotFound(err) { return nil } // already gone — desired end state
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "unable to remove container") { return fmt.Errorf("container %s: force remove or check daemon: %w", id, err) }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Remove(ctx, id) when ContainerRemove fails: no such container (already removed), the container is running without a force option (conflict), or the daemon is unreachable.

Common situations: Container already exited and auto-removed (race with --rm), attempting cleanup of a still-running container without Force, stale container id from a previous session, Docker daemon restarting during cleanup.

Related errors

• %q running container image %q errored during run with status
• %q running container image %q timed out after : %v
• pruning removed container: %w
• cannot call Run with empty container config
• pruning images: %w

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/258e6be75ac864f0. Report an issue: GitHub.