abiosoft/colima · warning

error during teardown of %s: %w

Error message

error during teardown of %s: %w

What it means

One container runtime's Teardown (host-side cleanup of what provisioning created) failed during delete; deliberately non-fatal, only warned. The VM and config teardown continue, but the named runtime may leave configuration behind on the host.

Source

Thrown at app/app.go:270

	//   container teardown -> vm teardown

	// vm teardown would've sufficed but container provision
	// may have created configurations on the host.
	// it is thereby necessary to teardown containers as well.

	// teardown container runtimes
	if c.guest.Running(ctx) {
		containers, err := c.currentContainerEnvironments(ctx)
		if err != nil {
			log.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error retrieving runtimes: %w", err))
		}
		for _, cont := range containers {
			log := log.WithField("context", cont.Name())
			log.Println("deleting ...")

			if err := cont.Teardown(ctx); err != nil {
				// failure here is not fatal
				log.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error during teardown of %s: %w", cont.Name(), err))
			}
		}
	}

	// teardown vm
	if err := c.guest.Teardown(ctx); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error during teardown of vm: %w", err)
	}

	// delete configs
	if err := configmanager.Teardown(); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error deleting configs: %w", err)
	}

	// delete runtime disk if disk in use and data deletion is requested
	if diskInUse && data {
		log.Println("deleting container data")
		if err := limautil.DeleteDisk(); err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. Complete the delete, then remove leftover artifacts by hand (docker context, kubeconfig entries)
2. Close applications holding colima config files and retry `colima delete --force`
3. Verify nothing remains: `docker context ls`, `kubectl config get-contexts`
4. Avoid pre-deleting contexts/configs manually before running colima delete

// non-fatal by design; after delete, sweep the named runtime's leftovers:
// docker context rm colima 2>/dev/null; kubectl config delete-context colima 2>/dev/null

When it happens

Trigger: `colima delete` when removing a runtime's host artifacts fails: `docker context rm colima` errors because the docker CLI fails, files are locked by another process, or the runtime binaries were already removed manually.

Common situations: Docker CLI upgraded to a version whose context handling changed; user already deleted the context manually; editors/IDEs holding config files open.

Related errors

• error during teardown of vm: %w
• error deleting lima disk: %w, output: %s
• error deleting configs: %w
• error deleting container data: %w
• error deleting %s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/865ccecba39b6ace. Report an issue: GitHub.