stopping colima with launchctl unload path/to/colima.launchd.plist doesn't stop colima

[cam-narzt]

Description

If you start colima via launchd, it will not stop when launchd unloads the service and sends it a SIGTERM.

colima is started with /usr/local/opt/colima/bin/colima start -f when run by launchd, so it is in the foreground to receive the SIGTERM, but it doesn't shut down.

Version

colima version 0.8.1
git commit: 96598cc
limactl version 1.2.0
-bash: qemu-img: command not found

Operating System

• macOS Intel <= 13 (Ventura)
• macOS Intel >= 14 (Sonoma)
• Apple Silicon <= 13 (Ventura)
• Apple Silicon >= 14 (Sonoma)
• Linux

Output of colima status

INFO[0001] colima is running using macOS Virtualization.Framework
INFO[0001] arch: x86_64
INFO[0001] runtime: docker
INFO[0001] mountType: virtiofs
INFO[0001] socket: unix:///Users/camdennarzt/.colima/default/docker.sock

Reproduction Steps

1. Install colima via homebrew
2. launchctl load "$(brew --prefix colima)/homebrew.mxcl.colima.plist"
3. while ! colima status; do sleep 3; done
4. launchctl unload "$(brew --prefix colima)/homebrew.mxcl.colima.plist"
5. sleep 100 && colima status

Expected behaviour

Unloading colima from launchd should stop colima.

Additional context

No response

[oogali]

@cam-narzt I'm having trouble reliably reproducing this.

Per the launchctl manpage, load and unload are legacy commands, that should be replaced with disable and enable[1][2][3].

When I started, I was able to reproduce the behavior each time. However, when I used the new commands, specifically launchctl disable gui/501/homebrew.mxcl.colima, I could no longer reproduce the behavior with load and unload.

So I suspect that this issue is tied to use of the legacy commands, but disappears once the new commands are used and launchctl updates its internal state.

Additionally, I'm curious why you are using launchctl instead of brew services stop colima or even colima stop?

$ launchctl list | grep colima
1589	0	homebrew.mxcl.colima

$ colima status
INFO[0001] colima is running using QEMU
INFO[0001] arch: x86_64
INFO[0001] runtime: docker
INFO[0001] mountType: 9p
INFO[0001] docker socket: unix:///Users/oogali/.colima/default/docker.sock
INFO[0001] containerd socket: unix:///Users/oogali/.colima/default/containerd.sock

$  brew services stop colima
Stopping `colima`... (might take a while)
==> Successfully stopped `colima` (label: homebrew.mxcl.colima)

$ colima status
FATA[0000] colima is not running

$ launchctl list | grep colima
$

1: https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=launchctl&sektion=1&manpath=macOS+10.15.0
2: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/os/reading-unix-manual-pages
3: https://www.alansiu.net/2023/11/15/launchctl-new-subcommand-basics-for-macos/

[cam-narzt]

Per the launchctl manpage and the link you sent bootout is the equivalent of unload, not disable. That is likely why you cannot reproduce the problem, you are trying to do something different than me.

I use launchctl instead of brew services because homebrew doesn't allow customizing the launchd plists (not relevant to colima but often enough otherwise) and in the past has been extremely broken, so I cannot use them for other services and don't trust them to work anyway.

I don't use colima stop manually because launchd will restart the process if you don't unload/bootout the plist and I want it to be stopped while I upgrade the installation, not to mention when shutting down macOS launchd handles shutting down the processes, not me, and processes not shutting down properly makes the OS slow to shutdown/restart.