hashicorp/nomad · warning

executor failed to shutdown error: no process found

Error message

executor failed to shutdown error: no process found

What it means

UniversalExecutor.Shutdown returns this when the executor's child command has no os.Process (childCmd.Process == nil), meaning the task process was never actually launched or the handle is stale. Nomad cannot signal or wait on a nonexistent process, so Shutdown fails rather than silently succeeding.

Source

Thrown at drivers/shared/executor/executor.go:628

	// existing process (e.g. when killing a process group).
	noSuchProcessErr = "no such process"
)

// Shutdown cleans up the alloc directory, destroys resource container and
// kills the user process.
func (e *UniversalExecutor) Shutdown(signal string, grace time.Duration) error {
	e.logger.Debug("shutdown requested", "signal", signal, "grace_period_ms", grace.Round(time.Millisecond))
	var merr multierror.Error

	// If the executor did not launch a process, return.
	if e.command == nil {
		return nil
	}

	// If there is no process we can't shutdown
	if e.childCmd.Process == nil {
		e.logger.Warn("failed to shutdown due to missing process", "error", "no process found")
		return fmt.Errorf("executor failed to shutdown error: no process found")
	}

	proc, err := os.FindProcess(e.childCmd.Process.Pid)
	if err != nil {
		err = fmt.Errorf("executor failed to find process: %v", err)
		e.logger.Warn("failed to shutdown due to inability to find process", "pid", e.childCmd.Process.Pid, "error", err)
		return err
	}

	// If grace is 0 then skip shutdown logic
	if grace > 0 {
		// Default signal to SIGINT if not set
		if signal == "" {
			signal = "SIGINT"
		}

		sig, ok := signals.SignalLookup[signal]
		if !ok {

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Ensure Launch succeeded (check its error) before calling Shutdown
2. Treat this as a no-op cleanup: the task is not running, so log and continue with task destruction
3. Check for races: synchronize Shutdown with task start, or recover the real PID via os.FindProcess if known

Example fix

// before
if err := exec.Shutdown(); err != nil {
    return err
}
// after
if err := exec.Shutdown(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no process found") {
        return nil // task never started; nothing to shut down
    }
    return err
}

// Ensure the task is running before shutdown
if !taskState.Running || taskState.Pid == 0 {
    return nil // nothing to shut down
}

func executorHasProcess(p *os.Process) bool { return p != nil }

if err := exec.Shutdown(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no process found") {
        log.Warn("executor had no child process; treating as already stopped")
        return nil
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Shutdown on an executor whose Launch either failed before starting the process or was never called; racing Shutdown against a not-yet-started task; restoring a task handle where the process record was lost.

Common situations: Task recovery after client restart with a stale executor handle; shutdown called concurrently with a failed Launch; tests that construct an executor without launching a command.

Related errors

• executor Shutdown failed: %v
• executor Shutdown failed: %v
• executor failed to find process: %v
• process did not exit after 15 seconds
• Task not yet run

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0a9ebfa5cdbb3987. Report an issue: GitHub.