abiosoft/colima · error

error writing store file: %w

Error message

error writing store file: %w

What it means

os.WriteFile of the marshalled store failed; %w carries the raw OS error. In practice: permission denied when the store file or directory is not writable (classic sudo-mixed-ownership), ENOSPC on a full home partition, or the parent directory disappearing between load and save.

Source

Thrown at store/store.go:46

		return s, fmt.Errorf("cannot read store file: %w", err)
	}

	if err := json.Unmarshal(b, &s); err != nil {
		return s, fmt.Errorf("error unmarshaling store file: %w", err)
	}

	return s, nil
}

// save persists the store.
func save(s Store) error {
	b, err := json.MarshalIndent(s, "", "  ")
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error marshaling store: %w", err)
	}

	if err := os.WriteFile(storeFile(), b, 0o644); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error writing store file: %w", err)
	}

	return nil
}

// Set provides an easy way to set a value in the store.
func Set(f func(*Store)) error {
	s, err := Load()
	if err != nil {
		logrus.Debug("error loading store: %w", err)
	}

	f(&s)

	if err := save(s); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error saving store: %w", err)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. Fix ownership of the colima config/store directory: chown -R $(id -u):$(id -g) <dir>
2. Free space on the volume holding the store (df -h) — VM images and models are the usual consumers
3. Ensure the store's parent directory exists, then retry the operation

// verify the store path is writable before mutating state
func storeWritable(p string) bool {
	if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(p), 0o755); err != nil {
		return false
	}
	f, err := os.OpenFile(p, os.O_WRONLY|os.O_CREATE, 0o644)
	if err != nil {
		return false
	}
	_ = f.Close()
	return true
}

var perr *fs.PathError
if errors.As(err, &perr) {
	switch {
	case errors.Is(perr.Err, fs.ErrPermission):
		// fix ownership of the store dir
	case errors.Is(perr.Err, fs.ErrNotExist):
		// recreate the parent directory, then retry
	}
}

When it happens

Trigger: Store path or its directory owned by root after a sudo colima run; home partition out of space; store directory deleted concurrently with the write.

Common situations: Alternating sudo and regular colima invocations; disk exhaustion from VM disks and pulled AI models.

Related errors

• error saving provisioning state: %w
• error reading ssh config: %w
• cannot make dir: %w
• error saving store: %w
• error persisting runtime settings: %w

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/620da123d44b4ee5. Report an issue: GitHub.