Does lima recreate /var/lib/docker everytime I reboot the VM instance?

[athrunsun]

lima version: 1.0.1

I'm running rootful docker on a ubuntu 24.04 VM. Yesterday I stopped VM instance, reboot my MacBook M2, started the VM instance again, and found that all my docker images and volumes are lost.

I ran ls and it shows that the whole /var/lib/docker directory somehow gets recreated.

Here is my lima.yaml for the VM instance:

# A template to use Docker (rootful) instead of containerd & nerdctl
# $ limactl start ./docker-rootful.yaml
# $ limactl shell docker-roootful docker run -it -v $HOME:$HOME --rm alpine

# To run `docker` on the host (assumes docker-cli is installed):
# $ export DOCKER_HOST=$(limactl list docker-rootful --format 'unix://{{.Dir}}/sock/docker.sock')
# $ docker ...

# This template requires Lima v0.20.0 or later
images:
# Try to use release-yyyyMMdd image if available. Note that release-yyyyMMdd will be removed after several months.
- location: "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/24.04/release-20241004/ubuntu-24.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
  arch: "x86_64"
  digest: "sha256:fad101d50b06b26590cf30542349f9e9d3041ad7929e3bc3531c81ec27f2c788"
- location: "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/24.04/release-20241004/ubuntu-24.04-server-cloudimg-arm64.img"
  arch: "aarch64"
  digest: "sha256:e380b683b0c497d2a87af8a5dbe94c42eb54548fa976167f307ed8cf3944ec57"
# Fallback to the latest release image.
# Hint: run `limactl prune` to invalidate the cache
- location: "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/24.04/release/ubuntu-24.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
  arch: "x86_64"
- location: "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/24.04/release/ubuntu-24.04-server-cloudimg-arm64.img"
  arch: "aarch64"

mounts:
- location: "~"
- location: "/tmp/lima"
  writable: true
# containerd is managed by Docker, not by Lima, so the values are set to false here.
containerd:
  system: false
  user: false
provision:
- mode: system
  # This script defines the host.docker.internal hostname when hostResolver is disabled.
  # It is also needed for lima 0.8.2 and earlier, which does not support hostResolver.hosts.
  # Names defined in /etc/hosts inside the VM are not resolved inside containers when
  # using the hostResolver; use hostResolver.hosts instead (requires lima 0.8.3 or later).
  script: |
    #!/bin/sh
    sed -i 's/host.lima.internal.*/host.lima.internal host.docker.internal/' /etc/hosts
- mode: system
  script: |
    #!/bin/bash
    set -eux -o pipefail
    command -v docker >/dev/null 2>&1 && exit 0
    if [ ! -e /etc/systemd/system/docker.socket.d/override.conf ]; then
      mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/docker.socket.d
      # Alternatively we could just add the user to the "docker" group, but that requires restarting the user session
      cat <<-EOF >/etc/systemd/system/docker.socket.d/override.conf
      [Socket]
      SocketUser={{.User}}
    EOF
    fi
    export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
    #curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
    curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
    sudo DOWNLOAD_URL=https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/docker-ce sh get-docker.sh
probes:
- script: |
    #!/bin/bash
    set -eux -o pipefail
    if ! timeout 30s bash -c "until command -v docker >/dev/null 2>&1; do sleep 3; done"; then
      echo >&2 "docker is not installed yet"
      exit 1
    fi
    if ! timeout 30s bash -c "until pgrep dockerd; do sleep 3; done"; then
      echo >&2 "dockerd is not running"
      exit 1
    fi
  hint: See "/var/log/cloud-init-output.log" in the guest
networks:
- vzNAT: true
hostResolver:
  # hostResolver.hosts requires lima 0.8.3 or later. Names defined here will also
  # resolve inside containers, and not just inside the VM itself.
  hosts:
    host.docker.internal: host.lima.internal
portForwards:
- guestSocket: "/var/run/docker.sock"
  hostSocket: "{{.Dir}}/sock/docker.sock"
message: |
  To run `docker` on the host (assumes docker-cli is installed), run the following commands:
  ------
  docker context create lima-{{.Name}} --docker "host=unix://{{.Dir}}/sock/docker.sock"
  docker context use lima-{{.Name}}
  docker run hello-world
  ------

Does lima has some sort of recreating mechanism for /var/lib/docker?

[AkihiroSuda]

Does lima has some sort of recreating mechanism for /var/lib/docker?

No, and I can't reproduce the issue with template://docker-rootful (Lima v1.0.2).

(Side note: template://alpine prior to Lima v0.20.2 (Mar 2024) had a bug that resulted in deletion of /var/lib under a specific condition, but this has nothing to do with Ubuntu-based templates)

[athrunsun]

Well, my statement is not accurate - not recreating /var/lib/docker, but its sub folder /var/lib/docker/volumes.

[athrunsun]

OK, my mistake again... I just tried once more, don't know why but this time the volumes survived the VM reboot. It's just that the modified datetime of that folder has changed, but the data is not lost.

[athrunsun]

BTW I upgraded lima from 1.0.1 to 1.1.1