abiosoft/colima · warning

inotify not running

Error message

inotify not running

What it means

inotifyProcess.Alive is a liveness probe used by Manager.Running, not a runtime failure. If the context carries CtxKeyDaemon()==true (the parent daemon is running) it reports healthy by assumption; otherwise it returns 'inotify not running'. You see it in `colima daemon status` output as the inotify subprocess's error when the parent daemon is down or being queried standalone.

Source

Thrown at daemon/process/inotify/inotify.go:50

var _ process.Process = (*inotifyProcess)(nil)

type inotifyProcess struct {
	vmVols  []string
	guest   environment.GuestActions
	runtime string

	log *logrus.Entry
}

// Alive implements process.Process
func (f *inotifyProcess) Alive(ctx context.Context) error {
	daemonRunning, _ := ctx.Value(process.CtxKeyDaemon()).(bool)

	// if the parent is active, we can assume inotify is active.
	if daemonRunning {
		return nil
	}
	return fmt.Errorf("inotify not running")
}

// Dependencies implements process.Process
func (*inotifyProcess) Dependencies() (deps []process.Dependency, root bool) {
	return nil, false
}

// Name implements process.Process
func (*inotifyProcess) Name() string {
	return Name
}

// Start implements process.Process
func (f *inotifyProcess) Start(ctx context.Context) error {
	args, ok := ctx.Value(CtxKeyArgs()).(Args)
	if !ok {
		return fmt.Errorf("args missing in context")
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. treat as expected status when the VM is stopped — no repair needed
2. start colima normally (`colima start`) — daemon and inotify come up with it
3. if the daemon should be up, inspect logs under <profile config dir>/daemon and `colima daemon status <profile>`

// check the parent daemon first; inotify status is meaningless without it
if err := host.RunQuiet(osutil.Executable(), "daemon", "status", profile); err != nil {
    // daemon down: expect inotify 'not running' — informational, not a fault
}

When it happens

Trigger: calling daemon status / Manager.Running when the parent daemon process is not running; the daemon was stopped with `colima daemon stop` or exited with the VM; checking subprocess status after `colima stop`.

Common situations: status checks while the VM is intentionally stopped; scripts enumerating subprocess health without first checking the parent daemon.

Related errors

• pid file not found: %w
• error watching container volumes: %w
• error setting up inotify dependencies: %w
• %s not running
• %s is not running

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bcbe87452536da8e. Report an issue: GitHub.