abiosoft/colima · warning

error listing containers: %w

Error message

error listing containers: %w

What it means

fetchVolumes first runs `<runtime> ps -q` in the guest to collect running container ids; failure wraps as 'error listing containers'. This is the inner failure beneath errors 108 (docker) and 110 (containerd); it surfaces in the poll goroutine's log, retried every 5 seconds, never fatal.

Source

Thrown at daemon/process/inotify/volumes.go:93

				}
			}
		}
	}()

	return nil
}

func (f *inotifyProcess) fetchVolumes(cmdArgs ...string) ([]string, error) {
	log := f.log

	// fetch all containers
	var containers []string
	{
		args := append([]string{}, cmdArgs...)
		args = append(args, "ps", "-q")
		out, err := f.guest.RunOutput(args...)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("error listing containers: %w", err)
		}
		containers = strings.Fields(out)
		if len(containers) == 0 {
			return nil, nil
		}
	}

	log.Tracef("found containers %+v", containers)

	// fetch volumes
	var resp []struct {
		Mounts []struct {
			Source string `json:"Source"`
		} `json:"Mounts"`
	}
	{
		args := append([]string{}, cmdArgs...)
		args = append(args, "inspect")

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. confirm the runtime works in the guest: `colima ssh -- docker ps` or `colima ssh -- sudo nerdctl ps`
2. treat boot-window occurrences as transient — the poll retries
3. restart colima if every cycle keeps failing

if err := guest.RunQuiet(runtimeCLI, "ps"); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("runtime %s not responding in guest: %w", f.runtime, err)
}

if out, err := guest.RunOutput(args...); err != nil {
    return nil, fmt.Errorf("error listing containers: %w", err) // caller logs; poll retries in 5s
}

When it happens

Trigger: the runtime CLI exists in the guest but its daemon is not answering (dockerd/containerd down or starting); the guest command fails outright; VM paused/suspended under the daemon.

Common situations: runtime installed but not started; guest under heavy load so the command times out; probing right after `colima start` before services are up.

Related errors

• error fetching docker volumes: %w
• error inspecting containers: %w
• error starting %s: %w
• error initiating container runtime: %w
• dependency check failed for %s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3b93356b16620f8e. Report an issue: GitHub.