overleaf / overleaf/toolkit

Bugs: Git Bash Path Conversion Causes Docker Mount Failure in Overleaf Toolkit

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Description

Bugs: Git Bash Path Conversion Causes Docker Mount Failure in Overleaf Toolkit

Environment

  • OS: Windows 11 Professional 24H2 (Build 26100.4770)
  • Git: 2.50.1.windows.1 (Git Bash kernel: MINGW64_NT-10.0-26100)
  • Docker: 28.3.2 (build 578ccf6)
  • Overleaf Toolkit: Latest commit (4c8ef67d8960fa5eb268072b3c2559b249f97bc8)

Description

When executing Overleaf Toolkit scripts via Git Bash on Windows, Docker encounters a critical mount path error due to Git Bash's automatic POSIX-to-Windows path conversion. The standard initialization workflow completes partially but fails at the container mounting stage with these logs:

amara@Amara MINGW64 /e/Downloads/GitRepo/Github/Docker/overleaf-toolkit (master)
$ ./bin/up -d
Initiating Mongo replica set...
[+] Running 2/2
 ✔ Network overleaf_default  Created                                       0.0s
 ✔ Container mongo           Started                                       0.3s
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
MongoNetworkError: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017
Waiting for Mongo...
[+] Running 3/3
 ✔ Container redis       Created                                           0.1s
 ✔ Container mongo       Running                                           0.0s
 ✘ Container sharelatex  Error response from dae...                        0.0s
Error response from daemon: mount denied:
the source path "/Users/amara/AppData/Overleaf:D:/Program Files/Git/var/lib/overleaf:rw"
too many colons

Critical Failure Point:
The mount error occurs due to malformed path conversion:

"/Users/amara/AppData/Overleaf:D:/Program Files/Git/var/lib/overleaf:rw"
  • The converter incorrectly injects the Git installation path (D:/Program Files/Git)
  • Creates a hybrid path with multiple colons (:)
  • Docker rejects the invalid path format

Analysis:

  1. Git Bash's path translation modifies /var/lib/overleaf
  2. Docker interprets the converted path as invalid syntax
  3. Volume mapping fails despite successful network and container initialization
  4. The initial MongoDB connection attempts are not errors, but standard waiting routines

Reproduction Steps

# Clone toolkit repository
git clone https://github.com/overleaf/toolkit.git
cd toolkit

# Initialize configuration
./bin/init

# Launch services (fails)
./bin/up -d

Proposed Solution

Modify paths in bin/docker-compose to bypass translation:

function set_base_vars() {
  ...
- OVERLEAF_IN_CONTAINER_DATA_PATH=/var/lib/overleaf
+ OVERLEAF_IN_CONTAINER_DATA_PATH=//var/lib/overleaf
  if [[ "$IMAGE_VERSION_MAJOR" -lt 5 ]]; then
-   OVERLEAF_IN_CONTAINER_DATA_PATH=/var/lib/sharelatex
+   OVERLEAF_IN_CONTAINER_DATA_PATH=//var/lib/sharelatex
  fi
  ...
}

Rationale:

  • Double-slash prefix //var/... works in Linux containers
  • Prevents Git Bash path conversion
  • Maintains cross-OS compatibility

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Review bin/docker-compose, especially set_base_vars and OVERLEAF_IN_CONTAINER_DATA_PATH, then reproduce the reported workflow with bin/init and bin/up -d from Git Bash on Windows. Confirm that the Docker mount no longer contains the injected Git installation path or too many colons, while the Linux container path remains usable.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
docker, docker-compose, shell
Domain
devops, infrastructure
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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