Clearing cache fails consistently on update
- Dominant language
- Shell
- Stars
- 49
- Forks
- 6
- Avg merge
- 1d 43m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 14
Description
## Describe the bug
Every time I run scripts/update, I run into issues with failure clearing out `/docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache/` due to file permission issues.
## To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
` suzanne@docker:~/docker-compose/docker-pixelfed$ ./scripts/update nightly-dev`
```
⚙️ clearing cache:
⚙️ clearing cache in [./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache]:
find: cannot delete ‘./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache/packages.php’: Permission denied
find: cannot delete ‘./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache/config.php’: Permission denied
find: cannot delete ‘./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache/routes-v7.php’: Permission denied
find: cannot delete ‘./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache/services.php’: Permission denied
❌ could not clear cache. Aborting!
❌ could not clear cache. Aborting!
suzanne@docker:~/docker-compose/docker-pixelfed$ sudo rm -rf ./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache/*.php
[sudo] password for suzanne:
suzanne@docker:~/docker-compose/docker-pixelfed$ ./scripts/update nightly-dev
```
```
⚙️ clearing cache:
⚙️ clearing cache in [./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache]:
✅ OK
⚙️ clearing cache in [./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache]:
✅ OK
⚙️ running 'config:cache':
```
## Expected behavior
No issues with file permissions
### Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.
## Debug output
_Generated on_ `Sat Aug 15 07:14:42 AM UTC 2026` by `scripts/debug-info`
System info
```
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Release: 12
Codename: bookworm
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 7.7Gi 3.1Gi 535Mi 68Mi 4.4Gi 4.6Gi
Swap: 975Mi 14Mi 961Mi
```
Docker info
```
Docker Compose version v5.3.1
Client: Docker Engine - Community
Version: 29.7.0
API version: 1.55
Go version: go1.26.5
Git commit: c1eba93
Built: Thu Jul 30 20:21:12 2026
OS/Arch: linux/amd64
Context: default
Server: Docker Engine - Community
Engine:
Version: 29.7.0
API version: 1.55 (minimum version 1.40)
Go version: go1.26.5
Git commit: 4b5cb71
Built: Thu Jul 30 20:21:12 2026
OS/Arch: linux/amd64
Experimental: false
containerd:
Version: v2.2.6
GitCommit: 11ce9d5f3c68c941867e82890e93e815c1304f1b
runc:
Version: 1.3.6
GitCommit: v1.3.6-0-g491b69ba
docker-init:
Version: 0.19.0
GitCommit: de40ad0
```
Enabled compose services
```
db
redis
cron
proxy
web
worker
```
.env settings
```sh
Container docker-pixelfed-worker-run-67747e4db6e8 Creating
Container docker-pixelfed-worker-run-67747e4db6e8 Created
APP_DEBUG="true"
ENABLE_CONFIG_CACHE="true"
OAUTH_ENABLED="true"
INSTANCE_PUBLIC_HASHTAGS="true"
INSTANCE_DISCOVER_PUBLIC="true"
INSTANCE_PUBLIC_LOCAL_TIMELINE="true"
CACHE_DRIVER="redis"
BROADCAST_DRIVER="redis"
DB_VERSION="11.4"
DB_CONNECTION="mysql"
DB_APPLY_NEW_MIGRATIONS_AUTOMATICALLY="true"
MAIL_DRIVER="smtp"
MAIL_HOST="REDACTED"
MAIL_PORT="587"
MAIL_ENCRYPTION="tls"
REDIS_HOST="redis"
REDIS_PORT="6379"
PF_ENABLE_CLOUD="true"
LOG_CHANNEL="stderr"
QUEUE_DRIVER="redis"
SESSION_DRIVER="redis"
DOCKER_ALL_HOST_ROOT_PATH="./docker-compose-state"
DOCKER_ALL_HOST_DATA_ROOT_PATH="./docker-compose-state/data"
DOCKER_ALL_HOST_CONFIG_ROOT_PATH="./docker-compose-state/config"
DOCKER_APP_HOST_OVERRIDES_PATH="./docker-compose-state/overrides"
TZ="UTC"
DOCKER_APP_RELEASE="nightly-dev"
DOCKER_APP_PHP_VERSION="8.3"
DOCKER_APP_RUNTIME="apache"
DOCKER_APP_DEBIAN_RELEASE="bookworm"
DOCKER_APP_BASE_TYPE="apache"
DOCKER_APP_IMAGE="ghcr.io/jippi/docker-pixelfed"
DOCKER_APP_TAG="nightly-dev-apache-8.3-bookworm"
DOCKER_APP_HOST_STORAGE_PATH="./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/storage"
DOCKER_APP_HOST_CACHE_PATH="./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache"
DOCKER_APP_ENSURE_OWNERSHIP_PATHS="./storage ./bootstrap"
DOCKER_APP_BUILD_FRONTEND="1"
DOCKER_REDIS_VERSION="7.4.2"
DOCKER_DB_IMAGE="mariadb:11.4"
DOCKER_DB_COMMAND="--default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password --old-mode=''"
DOCKER_DB_HOST_DATA_PATH="./docker-compose-state/data/db"
DOCKER_DB_HOST_CONFIG_PATH="./docker-compose-state/config/db"
DOCKER_DB_CONTAINER_DATA_PATH="/var/lib/mysql"
DOCKER_DB_HOST_PORT=3306
DOCKER_DB_CONTAINER_PORT=3306
```
Contributor guide
No contributing guide indexed for this repository
Research direction
Start with scripts/update and trace the cache-clearing step for ./docker-compose-state/data/pixelfed/cache/. Reproduce the failure with ./scripts/update nightly-dev and inspect how ownership is established for the cache files. Done means the update clears the cache and continues without requiring sudo.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- docker, docker-compose, shell
- Domain
- devops, infrastructure
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 55/100