bcicen/ctop · warning

attempting to reconnect...

Error message

attempting to reconnect...

What it means

The ConnectorSuper loop waits on the active connection; when conn.Wait() returns (connection closed), it sets the internal error to 'attempting to reconnect...' until the next loop iteration re-establishes the connection. Get() during this window returns this transient error.

Source

Thrown at connector/main.go:82

func (cs *ConnectorSuper) loop() {
	const interval = 3
	for {
		log.Infof("initializing connector")

		conn, err := cs.connFn()
		if err != nil {
			cs.setError(err)
			log.Errorf("failed to initialize connector: %s (%T)", err, err)
			log.Errorf("retrying in %ds", interval)
			time.Sleep(interval * time.Second)
		} else {
			cs.conn = conn
			cs.setError(nil)
			log.Infof("successfully initialized connector")

			// wait until connection closed
			cs.conn.Wait()
			cs.setError(fmt.Errorf("attempting to reconnect..."))
			log.Infof("connector closed")
		}
	}
}

// Enabled returns names for all enabled connectors on the current platform
func Enabled() (a []string) {
	for k, _ := range enabled {
		a = append(a, k)
	}
	sort.Strings(a)
	return a
}

// ByName returns a ConnectorSuper for a given name, or error if the connector
// does not exists on the current platform
func ByName(s string) (*ConnectorSuper, error) {
	if cfn, ok := enabled[s]; ok {

View on GitHub (pinned to 59f00dd6aa)

Solutions

1. Retry Get() with backoff until reconnection completes (err becomes nil)
2. Add reconnection event handling/logging around the connector lifecycle
3. Verify the container/daemon is actually running if the error persists

Example fix

// before
conn, err := cs.Get() // fails once after daemon restart
// after
var conn connector.Connector
for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
  conn, err = cs.Get()
  if err == nil { break }
  time.Sleep(500 * time.Millisecond)
}

// detect reconnect window
_, err := cs.Get()
reconnecting := err != nil && err.Error() == "attempting to reconnect..."

conn, err := cs.Get()
if err != nil && err.Error() == "attempting to reconnect..." {
    // retry with backoff; connection is re-established by the loop
    time.Sleep(500 * time.Millisecond)
}

When it happens

Trigger: The underlying connector's connection closes unexpectedly (container stopped, Docker daemon restart, network drop) and a Get() happens before the reconnect succeeds.

Common situations: Docker daemon restart while the app holds a connector; container stopped/removed underneath the client; transient network interruption in remote Docker setups.

Related errors

• connecting...

AI-assisted analysis of bcicen/ctop@59f00dd6aa (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/66351c3b141c59dd. Report an issue: GitHub.