lima-vm/lima · error

unexpected arguments %v

Error message

unexpected arguments %v

What it means

`limactl sudoers` (macOS, non-check mode) accepts at most zero arguments; two or more positional arguments are rejected with this error listing them. The command's job is only to emit the sudoers file content.

Source

Thrown at cmd/limactl/sudoers_darwin.go:42

	// Make sure the current network configuration is secure
	if err := nwCfg.Validate(); err != nil {
		logrus.Infof("Please check %s for more information.", socketVMNetURL)
		return err
	}
	check, err := cmd.Flags().GetBool("check")
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if check {
		return verifySudoAccess(ctx, nwCfg, args, cmd.OutOrStdout())
	}
	switch len(args) {
	case 0:
		// NOP
	case 1:
		return errors.New("the file argument can be specified only for --check mode")
	default:
		return fmt.Errorf("unexpected arguments %v", args)
	}
	sudoers, err := networks.Sudoers()
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	fmt.Fprint(cmd.OutOrStdout(), sudoers)
	return nil
}

func verifySudoAccess(ctx context.Context, nwCfg networks.Config, args []string, stdout io.Writer) error {
	var file string
	switch len(args) {
	case 0:
		file = nwCfg.Paths.Sudoers
		if file == "" {
			cfgFile, _ := networks.ConfigFile()
			return fmt.Errorf("no sudoers file defined in %#q", cfgFile)
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

1. Remove the extra positional arguments
2. Use `limactl sudoers` with no args to print the rules
3. Use `limactl sudoers --check <one-file>` to verify a single file

Example fix

// before
limactl sudoers /etc/sudoers.d/lima extra
// after
limactl sudoers

[[ $# -le 1 ]] || { echo 'sudoers accepts at most one arg (only with --check)'; exit 2; }

if ! out=$(limactl sudoers 2>&1); then echo "$out"; fi

When it happens

Trigger: `limactl sudoers foo bar` (2+ args) without --check mode.

Common situations: Pasting multiple paths or extra tokens into the command; scripting mistakes that append extra arguments; confusing this command with `limactl sudoers --check <file>`.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Unknown argument", "Invalid value", and "must be one of": invalid CLI argument errors explained — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• the file argument can be specified only for --check mode
• can check only a single sudoers file
• no sudoers file defined in %#q
• sudoers command is only supported on macOS right now
• limactl is running under rosetta, please reinstall lima with

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/35123ced482b272e. Report an issue: GitHub.