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[BUG] watch says: Error response from daemon: cannot overwrite non-directory "xxx" with directory "yyy" #13795
Description
Description
When I do a docker compose up --watch I get the error:
copying files to dff6....: Error response from daemon: cannot overwrite non-directory "/some/path/in/image" with directory "/"
In this case /some/path/in/image is a relative symlink.
The error occurs only with ---watch which probably means that this is an issue with the initial sync of compose watch.
Steps To Reproduce
Unfortunately I have not managed to reproduce the issue, but I have seen it multiple times.
- It always occurs after switching to a Git commit where folder structure is entirely different.
- The first time I was able to fix it by running
docker system prune. The second time bydocker compose build --no-cache. - The error occurs only with
--watch. I can start containers successfully without watch.
Compose Version
$ docker compose version
Docker Compose version v5.1.3
Docker Environment
$ docker info
Client: Docker Engine - Community
Version: 29.5.0
Context: default
Debug Mode: false
Plugins:
buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
Version: v0.34.0
Path: /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
Version: v5.1.3
Path: /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
Server:
Containers: 7
Running: 3
Paused: 0
Stopped: 4
Images: 10
Server Version: 29.5.0
Storage Driver: overlayfs
driver-type: io.containerd.snapshotter.v1
Logging Driver: json-file
Cgroup Driver: systemd
Cgroup Version: 2
Plugins:
Volume: local
Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
CDI spec directories:
/etc/cdi
/var/run/cdi
Swarm: inactive
Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
Default Runtime: runc
Init Binary: docker-init
containerd version: 77c84241c7cbdd9b4eca2591793e3d4f4317c590
runc version: v1.3.5-0-g488fc13e
init version: de40ad0
Security Options:
apparmor
seccomp
Profile: builtin
cgroupns
Kernel Version: 6.1.0-44-amd64
Operating System: Neptune 8.2
OSType: linux
Architecture: x86_64
CPUs: 12
Total Memory: 33.64GiB
Name: longy0201
ID: 2b992073-edb2-48f1-b2c1-81e969c69a58
Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
Debug Mode: false
Experimental: false
Insecure Registries:
::1/128
127.0.0.0/8
Live Restore Enabled: false
Firewall Backend: iptables
EnableUserlandProxy: true
UserlandProxyPath: /usr/bin/docker-proxy
Anything else?
No response
Activity
adityasharmawork commentedon May 31, 2026
Hey Maintainers!
I dug into where this error comes from. It's the watch sync step, not the build, which is why a plain
upworks and only--watchhits it.When watch syncs changed paths, it builds a tar and unpacks it into the running container through the daemon's
CopyToContainerat/(tarDockerClient.Untarinpkg/compose/watch.go). That call doesn't setAllowOverwriteDirWithFile, so the unpack runs withnoOverwriteDirNonDiron. If the tar carries a directory entry for a path that already exists in the image as a non-directory (your relative symlink), the daemon refuses and returns exactly:cannot overwrite non-directory "<path>" with directory "/"So the condition is a type mismatch at one path: a directory on the host side, a symlink (or file) in the image.
docker system prune/build --no-cacheclear it only because the rebuilt image no longer has the symlink there.It's hard to reproduce on demand because the initial sync only ever copies files, never whole directories (
initialSyncFilesskips directories on purpose). The directory entry that trips this comes from the regular event-driven sync, e.g. when a directory appears or changes under the watched path, which lines up with it happening "after switching to a commit where the folder structure is entirely different".Before I open a PR, I'd like to confirm the intended behavior:
AllowOverwriteDirWithFile: true, so it replaces the conflicting symlink/file with the host directory (host as the source of truth, which is what watch is for).I'm leaning towards 1, but that would make watch behave differently from
docker compose cp, which intentionally keeps the no-overwrite default (AllowOverwriteDirWithFile: false), so I didn't want to change the behavior without checking.Happy to send the PR with a regression test for whichever you'd prefer.