What causes "daemon %#q not defined" in lima-vm/lima?

Pass networks.SocketVMNet as the daemon name

daemon %#q not defined

Error message

daemon %#q not defined

What it means

After the daemon is confirmed installed, Config.User switches on the daemon name to return the user that runs it (root for socket_vmnet). If the daemon is installed but has no mapping in the switch, it returns 'daemon %#q not defined'. This guards against a name that passed path lookup but has no user rule.

Source

Thrown at pkg/networks/commands.go:91

	return filepath.Join(c.Paths.VarRun, fmt.Sprintf("%s_%s.pid", name, daemon))
}

func (c *Config) LogFile(name, daemon, stream string) string {
	networksDir, _ := dirnames.LimaNetworksDir()
	return filepath.Join(networksDir, fmt.Sprintf("%s_%s.%s.log", name, daemon, stream))
}

func (c *Config) User(daemon string) (osutil.User, error) {
	if ok, _ := c.IsDaemonInstalled(daemon); !ok {
		daemonPath, _ := c.DaemonPath(daemon)
		return osutil.User{}, fmt.Errorf("daemon %#q (path=%#q) is not available", daemon, daemonPath)
	}
	//nolint:gocritic // singleCaseSwitch: should rewrite switch statement to if statement
	switch daemon {
	case SocketVMNet:
		return osutil.LookupUser("root")
	}
	return osutil.User{}, fmt.Errorf("daemon %#q not defined", daemon)
}

func (c *Config) MkdirCmd() string {
	return fmt.Sprintf("/bin/mkdir -m 775 -p %s", c.Paths.VarRun)
}

func (c *Config) StartCmd(name, daemon string) string {
	if ok, _ := c.IsDaemonInstalled(daemon); !ok {
		panic(fmt.Errorf("daemon %#q is not available", daemon))
	}
	var cmd string
	switch daemon {
	case SocketVMNet:
		nw := c.Networks[name]
		if c.Paths.SocketVMNet == "" {
			panic("c.Paths.SocketVMNet is empty")
		}
		cmd = fmt.Sprintf("%s --pidfile=%s --socket-group=%s --vmnet-mode=%s",

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

Pass networks.SocketVMNet as the daemon name
Add a case in Config.User for any new daemon introduced in a fork
Validate the daemon name early (e.g. via DaemonPath) before calling User

Example fix

// before
u, err := cfg.User("socketvmnet")
// after
u, err := cfg.User(networks.SocketVMNet)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

if daemon != networks.SocketVMNet {
    return fmt.Errorf("no user mapping for daemon %q", daemon)
}

Type guard

func hasUserMapping(d string) bool { return d == networks.SocketVMNet }

Try / catch

u, err := cfg.User(daemon)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("daemon %q has no configured user; use socket_vmnet", daemon)
}

Prevention

Use the SocketVMNet constant for all daemon references
When adding daemons in forks, update both DaemonPath and User
Fail fast with DaemonPath before calling User

When it happens

Trigger: Calling User(daemon) with a daemon string that is not exactly networks.SocketVMNet — it reaches the fall-through return after the single-case switch.

Common situations: Same root cause as 'unknown daemon type': legacy daemon names or typos passed through caller code; a fork that added a daemon path entry but forgot to add the user-mapping case in User.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7753f7193769c4e8. Report an issue: GitHub.