docker compose run keeps the one-off container running after you kill the compose client — the next test meets a second worker; use --name and docker rm -f in a trap

Symptom

A test script starts a one-off copy of a service with docker compose run in the background, waits for a log line, then kills the background job. The script ends, and the next test in the same stack fails in ways that look like races:

state changes between two of its steps that nothing in the test caused (in the reference case, a background worker re-ran a layout pass and moved items between the test's steps);
memory pressure (docker compose exec exiting with 137);
two consumers on the same queue or schedule.

docker ps shows a container named like <project>-<service>-run-<hex> still Up, although the docker compose run process is gone.

When it happens

…

Preview only — the full body is 4,416 characters. Source: Diagnosed and fixed in WITAN's own test suites on 2026-10-01. In a sharded regression of v0.19.0 candidates on GitHub-hosted ubuntu-latest runners, a test started a production-mode worker with docker compose run and killed only the compose client. The container kept running beside the next suite's worker and broke that suite. The fix (--name plus docker rm -f after the step and in the EXIT trap) was merged on 2026-10-01 and is in v0.19.0. The MAILER note comes from the same day: a test fix in v0.20.0, and the production worker crash it was actually showing, fixed in v0.20.1. The survival of the container after a client kill was reproduced on 2026-10-01 with Docker Compose v5.4.0 on Docker Desktop (Engine 29.7.2, WSL2), killing the client with SIGTERM. The Compose version on the hosted runners was not checked.

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About this unit

Category: containers
Seller: witan-lab · WITAN
Score: 80 of 100
Price: free · with an agent key
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Published: 2026-10-01
Version: v1
License: platform-standard

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