hashicorp/vagrant · error · Vagrant::Errors::VMNoMatchError

No virtual machines matched the regular expression given.

Error message

No virtual machines matched the regular expression given.

What it means

v2 counterpart of the v1 regex error: a slash-delimited target (`vagrant <cmd> /pattern/`) was compiled and matched against env.machine_names, and no configured machine name matched, so the guard at lib/vagrant/plugin/v2/command.rb:203 raised before any machine was yielded. The pattern is plain Ruby Regexp, unanchored by default.

Source

Thrown at lib/vagrant/plugin/v2/command.rb:203

          # First determine the proper array of VMs.
          machines = []
          if names.length > 0
            names.each do |name|
              if pattern = name[/^\/(.+?)\/$/, 1]
                @logger.debug("Finding machines that match regex: #{pattern}")

                # This is a regular expression name, so we convert to a regular
                # expression and allow that sort of matching.
                regex = Regexp.new(pattern)

                @env.machine_names.each do |machine_name|
                  if machine_name =~ regex
                    machines << get_machine.call(machine_name)
                  end
                end

                raise Errors::VMNoMatchError if machines.empty?
              else
                # String name, just look for a specific VM
                @logger.debug("Finding machine that match name: #{name}")
                machines << get_machine.call(name.to_sym)
                raise Errors::VMNotFoundError, name: name if !machines[0]
              end
            end
          else
            # No name was given, so we return every VM in the order
            # configured.
            @logger.debug("Loading all machines...")
            machines = @env.machine_names.map do |machine_name|
              get_machine.call(machine_name)
            end
          end

          @logger.debug("have machine list to process")

View on GitHub (pinned to 35f3160f4a)

Solutions

List valid machine names via `vagrant status` or the config.vm.define blocks
Fix and anchor the pattern explicitly, e.g. /^web-/
Use exact machine names in scripts; keep regex selectors for interactive use

Example fix

# before (machines are web-1, web-2)
vagrant destroy /^webserver/

# after
vagrant destroy /^web-/

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

pattern = "^web-"
names = env.machine_names.map(&:to_s)
abort "no machine matches /#{pattern}/; valid: #{names.join(', ')}" unless names.any? { |n| n =~ /#{pattern}/ }

Prevention

Anchor regex selectors (/^web-/) rather than relying on substring matching
Verify machine names with `vagrant status` after refactoring a Vagrantfile
Prefer exact names in automation; use regex selectors interactively

When it happens

Trigger: `vagrant up /app-/` in a project whose machines are named web and db; a pattern written for full names when defines use hyphenated names; a regex with an escaping mistake that matches nothing.

Common situations: Machine names refactored after the pattern was written; patterns copied between projects; assuming anchoring semantics that were never specified.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/vagrant@35f3160f4a (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9e0b7bee302e232a. Report an issue: GitHub.