Error: podman run says the container name is already in use

[ryanj]

I ran into podman issue #2553, where "podman run says the container name is already in use but podman ps --all does not show any container with that name"

Found and cleaned up some leftover state to work around the issue:

Storage check and cleanup:

1. podman rm --storage storage_id
2. check /var/lib/containers/storage/overlay-containers/containers.json for invalid state
3. leftover shm mounts can be found using mount and removed using umount

Net ns check and cleanup:

1. podman network ls (slated for podman v1.5.2)
2. check /var/lib/cni/networks/podman/last_reserved_ip.0 for invalid state
3. leftover netns mounts can be found by running mount, or by checking in /var/run/netns. For cleanup, try ip netns list and ip netns delete netns_id

Issues to watch:

• podman run says the container name is already in use but podman ps --all does not show any container with that name containers/podman#2553
• better error message required in case error in CNI plugin. containers/podman#2909
• Rebooted, dangling file in /var/lib/cni/networks/podman prevents container starting  containers/podman#3759
• Container storage leak when the podman process is SIGKILL containers/podman#3906
• Add support for mounting volumes with local driver and options containers/podman#3931

[zhuguoliang]

Can you specify how you check state in step 2 and step 3? @ryanj

[penghon]

Encountered this while using ansible to send podman rm {{ container_name }} -f via command module.
Left over in /var/lib/containers/storage/overlay-containers/containers.json. Removed it and it is good to go.

[jrevillard]

Encountered this while using ansible to send podman rm {{ container_name }} -f via command module.
Left over in /var/lib/containers/storage/overlay-containers/containers.json. Removed it and it is good to go.

I just faced the same issue. Is there anybody looking into this ?

Best.

[ryanj]

@zhuguoliang, @jrevillard - This is definitely a "Won't Fix" issue for this project, but feel free to click through to the related issues for additional details (see "Issues to watch" above).

From the notes that I saw in the linked issues, updating to a newer release of podman and/or buildah may provide a solution for this. Definitely let me know if that works for you.

@zhuguoliang: Regarding steps 2 and 3:
step2: the storage check can be performed by running: cat /var/lib/containers/storage/overlay-containers/containers.json.
If your stale container info is listed in that file, update the file and remove the outdated container info/blob.
step3: check the output from mount for any leftover container volumes. If you find any, use umount VOLUMEPATH to unmount the leftover container volume.