[SOLVED] Permission denied when spinning up a neo4j container via colima

Permission denied when spinning up a neo4j container via colima

I recently switched from Docker Desktop to colima and I've been unable to start a neo4j container eversince. When I run docker-compose, I get the following errors in docker logs, causing neo4j to crash:

> docker logs neo4j
Changed password for user 'neo4j'.
chown: /data/dbms/auth.ini: Permission denied
chown: /data/dbms: Permission denied
chown: /data/dbms: Permission denied
chown: /data: Permission denied
chown: /data: Permission denied

Previously, the same code worked fine with the Docker Desktop set-up. Any ideas how can I fix this?

I have tried the following:

Verified that read/write permissions are there for the signed-in user on the corresponding files and directories mentioned in the logs above.
Tried reinstalling colima, docker and docker-compose.
Cross-checked permissions on the relevant folders for these tools (/.colima, /.docker etc.)
Running all commands with "sudo" wherever applicable
Tried deleting the /data/ directory mentioned in the logs so it can be re-generated properly
Turning it off and on :P

Solution

I was able to find a solution and I'm writing this here for future reference of other users who might come across the same issue. The core of the issue lies with bind mounted volumes. Previously, docker desktop had elevated privileges / permissions but now after shifting over to colima, the same privileges were no longer there.

User permissions weren't being passed on properly to the containers, resulting in them being unable to access the binded volumes on the host machine. The solution is to add a user:group or uid:gid mapping in the docker run command or the docker-compose file etc.

user: "<uid>:<gid>"

In a docker-compose file, it would look like this:

version: '3.4'
services:
  neo4j:
      image: neo4j:3.5.5
      container_name: neo4j
      ports:
          - 7474:7474
          - 7687:7687
      volumes:
          - ./example/docker/neo4j/conf:/conf
          - ./.local/neo4j/data:/var/lib/neo4j/data
      user: '1000'
      group_add:
      - '1000'

For further information, please go through the following docs/threads: