abiosoft/colima · error

process not found: %v

Error message

process not found: %v

What it means

Returned when os.FindProcess(pid) fails after the pid file parsed to a nonzero pid. On Unix (macOS/Linux, colima's supported hosts) os.FindProcess ALWAYS succeeds and returns a non-nil *Process even for nonexistent pids — liveness validation is deferred to Signal(0). This error is therefore effectively unreachable on Unix and only fires on Windows, where FindProcess actually checks process existence.

Source

Thrown at cmd/daemon/daemon.go:130

func status() error {
	info := Info()
	if _, err := os.Stat(info.PidFile); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("pid file not found: %w", err)
	}

	// check if process is actually running
	p, err := os.ReadFile(info.PidFile)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error reading pid file: %w", err)
	}
	pid, _ := strconv.Atoi(string(p))
	if pid == 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid pid: %v", string(p))
	}

	process, err := os.FindProcess(pid)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("process not found: %v", err)
	}

	if err := process.Signal(syscall.Signal(0)); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("process signal(0) returned error: %w", err)
	}

	return nil
}

const (
	pidFileName = "daemon.pid"
	logFileName = "daemon.log"
)

func Info() struct {
	PidFile string
	LogFile string
} {

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. On macOS/Linux treat this as impossible — if you see it, the platform is not Unix: switch to a supported host
2. Delete the stale pid file and restart the daemon: rm dir()/daemon.pid, then `colima daemon start`
3. If Windows support is intended, gate this branch with runtime.GOOS and rely on the Signal(0) check instead

Example fix

// before
process, err := os.FindProcess(pid)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("process not found: %v", err)
}

// after
// on unix FindProcess never errors; keep the check but include the pid and wrap the cause
process, err := os.FindProcess(pid)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("process %d not found: %w", pid, err)
}

// on unix this branch is unreachable; if you must be defensive:
if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
    if p, err := os.FindProcess(pid); err != nil || p == nil {
        // pid invalid on this platform; treat the pid file as stale
        _ = os.Remove(info.PidFile)
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Porting or running the colima daemon tooling on a Windows host; a pid file referencing a pid that does not exist on a platform where FindProcess validates. On darwin/linux this branch is dead code.

Common situations: Experimental Windows builds of colima tooling; CI runners attempting daemon status on windows; almost never seen in normal macOS/Linux usage.

Related errors

• cannot make dir: %w
• error starting daemon: %w
• error sending sigterm to daemon: %w
• pid file not found: %w
• invalid pid: %v

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2e42fbfea5d7dc40. Report an issue: GitHub.