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fix: recreate reaper when the existing container is not running - #3868

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skartikey:fix/reaper-reuse-stopped-container
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skartikey wants to merge 4 commits into
testcontainers:mainfrom
skartikey:fix/reaper-reuse-stopped-container

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@skartikey

@skartikey skartikey commented Sep 1, 2026 •

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What does this PR do?

Makes the reaper reuse path handle a container that exists but is not running, instead of waiting on it until the startup timeout expires.

reaperSpawner.lookupContainer now checks the state of the container it found. A running container is returned for reuse as before. A created or restarting container returns a retryable error so the existing backoff waits for it to come up. Any other state (exited, dead, paused, removing) is a reaper that will never become ready again, so it is force removed and errReaperNotFound is reported, which makes reuseOrCreate build a fresh reaper. A removal that fails with not found or "removal already in progress" (a container in the auto-remove window) is treated as done, and the create path already retries on the resulting name conflict.

fromContainer verifies the container is still running before entering the readiness wait, and checks again if the wait fails. A reaper that stops between lookup and wait, or during the wait, reports a not-found error, which the spawner treats as retryable, so the retry's lookup takes the recreate path instead of failing permanently.

reuseOrCreate now passes the caller's context to lookupContainer, so the transitional-state retries honor cancellation and deadlines.

Adds Test_RecreateReaperIfStopped, which plants an exited, non-auto-removed container carrying the session reaper's exact name and labels, and asserts that the spawner replaces it with a working reaper and removes the stopped container. The test fails on the previous code (wait for reaper: container exited with code 0) and passes with this change. TestSpawnerRetryError gains a case for a wait failure on a stopped container.

Why is it important?

When multiple test processes of one go test ./... invocation share a session, they share one reaper, and ryuk exits after its reconnection timeout once no client is connected. A large multi-package run has natural gaps with no active containers, so the reaper legitimately dies mid-run. The next package that needs a container then found the stopped container and waited on it for the full 60s startup timeout, failing with reaper: from container "xxxx": wait for reaper xxxx: context deadline exceeded. Because package scheduling on a fixed CI runner is roughly deterministic, the same package kept failing, making a library race look like a flaky test. It has been reproduced independently on CircleCI and GitHub Actions.

Related issues

How to test this PR

Run the reaper tests against a local Docker daemon:

go test -count=1 -run 'Test_NewReaper|Test_ReaperReusedIfHealthy|Test_RecreateReaperIfTerminated|Test_RecreateReaperIfStopped|TestReaper_reuseItFromOtherTestProgramUsingDocker|TestReaper_ReuseRunning|TestSpawnerBackoff|TestSpawnerRetryError' -v .

Test_RecreateReaperIfStopped reproduces the bug when run against the previous code.

Follow-ups

LogStrategy.WaitUntilReady keeps polling until its timeout when Logs() fails, ignoring the container state error it already fetched. That is why a reaper stopping mid-wait costs the full 60s before this PR's retry kicks in. It affects every log wait, so it is fixed separately in #3898.

@skartikey
skartikey requested a review from a team as a code owner September 1, 2026 14:34
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Summary by CodeRabbit

  • Bug Fixes

    • Improved reaper container recovery when an existing container has stopped, failed, or entered an unusable state.
    • Automatically removes unusable reapers and creates a fresh one instead of waiting for a startup timeout.
    • Detects reapers that stop during startup and recreates them reliably.
    • Handles containers that are still initializing by retrying until they become ready.
  • Tests

    • Added coverage verifying stopped reapers are replaced and connections succeed.

Walkthrough

The reaper spawner now distinguishes running, transitional, and stopped containers. It removes stopped containers and creates replacements. The reuse path checks container status before readiness waits. Tests verify replacement, cleanup, reconnection, and retry classification.

Changes

Reaper recovery

Layer / File(s) Summary
State-aware reaper lookup
reaper.go
lookupContainer reuses running containers, retries created or restarting containers, removes other states, and uses the caller’s context.
Safe reuse and recovery validation
reaper.go, reaper_test.go
fromContainer detects termination before and during readiness waits. Tests verify stopped-container replacement, cleanup, reconnection, and retry classification.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant Spawner
  participant Docker
  participant Reaper
  Spawner->>Docker: Find reaper container
  Docker-->>Spawner: Return container state
  alt Container is running
    Spawner->>Reaper: Wait for readiness
    Reaper-->>Spawner: Return connection
  else Container is stopped
    Spawner->>Docker: Remove stopped container
    Spawner->>Docker: Create replacement reaper
    Docker-->>Spawner: Return new container
    Spawner->>Reaper: Wait for readiness
  end
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Suggested reviewers: mdelapenya

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 4153a

The stopped-reaper recovery paths and associated tests address the reported lifecycle behavior, with no remaining actionable merge risk identified.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name Status Explanation Resolution
Docstring Coverage ⚠️ Warning Docstring coverage is 25.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 4 functions across 2 files. Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.
✅ Passed checks (4 passed)
Check name Status Explanation
Linked Issues check ✅ Passed Issue #3867 requires stopped reapers to be treated as unavailable, removed or replaced, and followed by creation of a fresh reaper. The PR inspects container state in lookupContainer, retries create…
Out of Scope Changes check ✅ Passed The reported changes are limited to reaper lookup, reuse, retry handling, and tests for the stopped-reaper behavior in issue #3867. The changes support the linked issue and show no unrelated functiona…
Title check ✅ Passed The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: recreating the reaper when the existing container is not running.
Description check ✅ Passed The description directly explains the reaper reuse changes, retry behavior, race handling, tests, and related issue.
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Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
In `@reaper.go`:
- Line 204: Update reuseOrCreate to pass the caller’s ctx into lookupContainer
instead of context.Background(), ensuring transitional-state retries honor
cancellation and deadlines while preserving the existing retry behavior.
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Comment thread reaper.go
@skartikey

skartikey commented Sep 17, 2026 •

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@mdelapenya could you approve the workflows for this one and #3898 when you get a chance? The main pipeline and CodeQL are waiting for maintainer approval on both, and a second user has now reproduced the reaper race on GitHub Actions in #3867.

If the reaper terminates during the readiness wait, join the not-running error to the wait error so the spawner retries and recreates the reaper instead of failing permanently.
A reaper in the auto-remove window reports a removal-already-in-progress conflict when force removed. Treat it like not found so the spawner creates the new reaper and retries on the name conflict, instead of looping on the lookup.
@trooney

trooney commented Oct 1, 2026

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We're hitting this in CI on v0.44.0: reaper: from container "": wait for reaper : context deadline exceeded after 60s, when a package reuses a reaper that exits during the ForLog("Started") wait. It didn't happen on v0.42.0.

In a forced-timing repro (second package starts ~50ms before Ryuk's 10s idle exit), this PR fixed it in 8/8 trials. #3898 alone still failed 1/8 with unexpected container status "removing".

@skartikey

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@trooney thanks for running the forced-timing repro, that's really useful. The 1/8 on #3898 alone matches what I'd expect: a reaper caught mid auto-remove shows up as "removing", and only this PR's lookup treats that as gone and recreates it. So the two are meant to land together.

@skartikey

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@mdelapenya could you approve the workflows here and on #3898 when you get a chance? A third user has now hit this in CI on v0.44.0 (it didn't happen on v0.42.0), and their repro above shows this PR fixing it in 8/8 runs.

@skartikey

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@mdelapenya a quick status for when you pick this up. Three users have now hit this on v0.44.0 and two have validated this branch at 72158f4e:

Workflows still need approval here and on #3898.

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[Bug]: reaper reuse finds an exited ryuk container and times out instead of creating a new one

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