chown: Permission denied on macOS bind-mounted repos (Docker Desktop)

[atakanatali]

Issue: chown Permission denied on macOS bind-mounted Git repos (Docker Desktop)

Environment

• OS: macOS
• Docker: Docker Desktop
• Mount: bind mount (./repos -> /repos)
• Container: Node.js app (starts as root, then drops to node)
• Repos: multiple Git repos under ./repos

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Problem

Container fails on startup with errors like:

chown: changing ownership of '/repos//.git/objects/pack/pack-*.pack': Permission denied

This causes a restart loop.

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Why this happens

• Git pack files (.git/objects/pack/*) are created as read-only
• Files contain macOS extended attributes (com.apple.provenance)
• Docker Desktop macOS file sharing does not reliably allow chown or chmod
• This happens even when running the container as root
• Result: chown -R /repos sometimes works, sometimes fails depending on Git activity

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What did NOT work

• Running the container as root
• Running chown -R /repos on every startup
• Dockerfile or docker-compose only fixes
• macOS ACL only fixes

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Solution (host side, one time)

Run once on the host:

chmod -R -N ./repos
chmod -R g+rwX ./repos
find ./repos -type d -exec chmod g+s {} ;
find ./repos -path "/.git/" -type f -exec chmod u+rw,g+rw {} ;
xattr -r -d com.apple.provenance ./repos 2>/dev/null || true

Then restart containers:

docker compose down
docker compose up -d

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Result

• chown -R /repos works reliably
• No restart loops
• Git operations (fetch, gc, checkout) are stable
• New repos inherit correct permissions
• No further host action required

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Takeaway

On macOS with Docker Desktop, bind-mounted Git repos can fail chown
due to read-only pack files and extended attributes.
Normalizing permissions on the host is the only reliable fix.