lima-vm/lima · error

invalid digest in raw digest file %q: %w

Error message

invalid digest in raw digest file %q: %w

What it means

When resolving a cached converted (raw) image, getCached reads the sidecar raw digest file and parses it with digest.Parse. If the stored digest string is malformed (e.g. missing "sha256:" prefix or non-hex characters), the parse failure is wrapped in this error and the cache resolution aborts.

Source

Thrown at pkg/downloader/downloader.go:360

					converted, rawDigest, err := ensureRawInCache(ctx, shadData, imageFormat, o.expectedDigest)
					if err != nil {
						return nil, err
					}
					shadData = converted
					if o.expectedDigest != "" {
						o.expectedDigest = rawDigest
						shadDigest = rawImgConvDigestPath
					}
				} else {
					shadData = rawImgConvPath
					if o.expectedDigest != "" {
						if currentDigestData, err := os.ReadFile(rawImgConvDigestPath); err == nil {
							currentDigest := strings.TrimSpace(string(currentDigestData))
							if d, err := digest.Parse(currentDigest); err == nil {
								o.expectedDigest = d
								shadDigest = rawImgConvDigestPath
							} else {
								return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid digest in raw digest file %q: %w", rawImgConvDigestPath, err)
							}
						} else {
							return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to read raw digest file %q: %w", rawImgConvDigestPath, err)
						}
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}

	ext := path.Ext(remote)
	logrus.Debugf("file %#q is cached as %#q", localPath, shadData)
	if _, err := os.Stat(shadDigest); err == nil {
		logrus.Debugf("Comparing digest %#q with the cached digest file %#q, not computing the actual digest of %#q",
			o.expectedDigest, shadDigest, shadData)
		if err := validateCachedDigest(shadDigest, o.expectedDigest); err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

1. Delete the corrupted digest file (and its associated raw image) from the cache directory and re-run the download so it is regenerated.
2. Ensure the digest file contains a valid form like "sha256:<64 hex chars>" if you maintain the cache manually.
3. Clear the whole cache dir if multiple entries look corrupt.

Example fix

// before: cache contains 'abc123' (no algo prefix) -> invalid digest
// after: fix the cache entry
$ echo "sha256:<64-hex>" > ~/.cache/lima/images/<img>-raw.digest
// or simply:
$ rm ~/.cache/lima/images/<img>-raw.digest  # forces regeneration

data, err := os.ReadFile(digestPath)
if err == nil {
    if _, err := digest.Parse(strings.TrimSpace(string(data))); err != nil {
        os.Remove(digestPath) // purge corrupt cache entry before downloading
    }
}

func isValidDigest(s string) bool {
    _, err := digest.Parse(strings.TrimSpace(s))
    return err == nil
}

res, err := d.Download(ctx, "", url)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "invalid digest in raw digest file") {
    os.Remove(corruptDigestPath); res, err = d.Download(ctx, "", url) // retry after purge
}

When it happens

Trigger: A raw-image conversion digest file (rawImgConvDigestPath, e.g. <image>.digest under the imgConv cache dir) exists in the cache but its trimmed content is not a valid containerd-style digest, encountered during a cache-only Download.

Common situations: Cache files hand-edited or truncated by disk-full during a previous run; a cache written by an older Lima version with a different digest format; copying cache directories between machines with corruption.

Related errors

• caching-only mode requires the cache directory to be specifi
• failed to read raw digest file %q: %w
• failed to convert image to raw: %w
• failed to open raw tmp file %q: %w
• failed to stat raw tmp file %q: %w

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/da9d96cd8091f88b. Report an issue: GitHub.