openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: Agent deletion leaves residuals in Docker bind mounts due to trash/movePathToTrash limitations [1 comments, 2 participants]

Description

In Docker environments where the .openclaw directory is mounted as a volume or bind mount, deleting an agent often leaves physical directories behind (workspace/, agents/, sessions/).

This happens for two reasons:

1. CLI Path: src/commands/onboard-helpers.ts's moveToTrash implementation only attempts to call the trash binary. Since trash-cli is missing from the official Docker image (Issue #83459), it fails and does nothing.
2. Gateway Path: While the Gateway uses movePathToTrash (from @openclaw/fs-safe), this helper sometimes fails or is less robust when moving directories across filesystem boundaries (e.g., from a bind mount to the container's root trash) compared to the system-level trash-cli (which correctly handles .Trash-1000 at the mount point).

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run OpenClaw in Docker with /root/.openclaw bind-mounted.
2. Ensure trash-cli is NOT installed in the container (default state).
3. Create and then delete an agent (either via CLI --force or Gateway UI).
4. Observe that while the agent is removed from openclaw.json, the physical directories remain in ~/.openclaw.

Expected Behavior

Agent deletion should be a "best-effort" but robust process that cleans up physical files even in cross-device/bind-mount scenarios.

Suggested Fix

1. Add trash-cli to the official Docker image (as suggested in #83459).
2. Implement a robust "Best Effort" trash logic that is shared between CLI and Gateway:
   • First attempt to use the system trash command (most robust for mounts).
   • Fall back to the JS movePathToTrash helper if the binary is missing or fails.
   • (Optional) Fall back to a simple rename/move or rm -rf if both trash methods fail and it's a forced deletion.

I've successfully resolved this locally by updating moveToTrashBestEffort in src/gateway/server-methods/agents.ts to prioritize the binary:

async function moveToTrashBestEffort(pathname: string): Promise<void> {
  // ... check existence ...
  try {
    // Try trash binary first (supports cross-device move via .Trash-1000)
    await runCommandWithTimeout(["trash", pathname], { timeoutMs: 5000 });
  } catch {
    try {
      // Fallback to JS library
      await movePathToTrash(pathname);
    } catch {
      // Best-effort
    }
  }
}

And similar logic should be applied to the CLI path in src/commands/onboard-helpers.ts.