Bugs: Git Bash Path Conversion Causes Docker Mount Failure in Overleaf Toolkit

[bfmhno3]

Bugs: Git Bash Path Conversion Causes Docker Mount Failure in Overleaf Toolkit

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 Professional 24H2 (Build 26100.4770)
• Git: 2.50.1.windows.1 (Git Bash kernel: MINGW64_NT-10.0-26100)
• Docker: 28.3.2 (build 578ccf6)
• Overleaf Toolkit: Latest commit (4c8ef67d8960fa5eb268072b3c2559b249f97bc8)

Description

When executing Overleaf Toolkit scripts via Git Bash on Windows, Docker encounters a critical mount path error due to Git Bash's automatic POSIX-to-Windows path conversion. The standard initialization workflow completes partially but fails at the container mounting stage with these logs:

amara@Amara MINGW64 /e/Downloads/GitRepo/Github/Docker/overleaf-toolkit (master)
$ ./bin/up -d
Initiating Mongo replica set...
[+] Running 2/2
 ✔ Network overleaf_default  Created                                       0.0s
 ✔ Container mongo           Started                                       0.3s
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
[+] Running 3/3
 ✔ Container redis       Created                                           0.1s
 ✔ Container mongo       Running                                           0.0s
 ✘ Container sharelatex  Error response from dae...                        0.0s
Error response from daemon: mount denied:
the source path "/Users/amara/AppData/Overleaf:D:/Program Files/Git/var/lib/overleaf:rw"
too many colons

Critical Failure Point:
The mount error occurs due to malformed path conversion:

"/Users/amara/AppData/Overleaf:D:/Program Files/Git/var/lib/overleaf:rw"

• The converter incorrectly injects the Git installation path (D:/Program Files/Git)
• Creates a hybrid path with multiple colons (:)
• Docker rejects the invalid path format

Analysis:

1. Git Bash's path translation modifies /var/lib/overleaf
2. Docker interprets the converted path as invalid syntax
3. Volume mapping fails despite successful network and container initialization
4. The initial MongoDB connection attempts are not errors, but standard waiting routines

Reproduction Steps

# Clone toolkit repository
git clone https://github.com/overleaf/toolkit.git
cd toolkit

# Initialize configuration
./bin/init

# Launch services (fails)
./bin/up -d

Proposed Solution

Modify paths in bin/docker-compose to bypass translation:

function set_base_vars() {
  ...
- OVERLEAF_IN_CONTAINER_DATA_PATH=/var/lib/overleaf
+ OVERLEAF_IN_CONTAINER_DATA_PATH=//var/lib/overleaf
  if [[ "$IMAGE_VERSION_MAJOR" -lt 5 ]]; then
-   OVERLEAF_IN_CONTAINER_DATA_PATH=/var/lib/sharelatex
+   OVERLEAF_IN_CONTAINER_DATA_PATH=//var/lib/sharelatex
  fi
  ...
}

Rationale:

• Double-slash prefix //var/... works in Linux containers
• Prevents Git Bash path conversion
• Maintains cross-OS compatibility

[bfmhno3]

A PR will be submitted to implement this mitigation.

[lizilong1993]

thank you, it works

[bfmhno3]

thank you, it works

It's my honor to help you.

[A-H-Mansoury]

Thanks for the fix!

[bfmhno3]

Thanks for the fix!

You are welcome.