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)