nextjs - 💡(How to fix) Fix Turbopack file watcher broken in Podman on macOS (AppleHV VM — no FSEvents→inotify bridge) [1 comments, 2 participants]

Link to the code that reproduces this issue

https://github.com/vercel/next.js/tree/canary/examples/reproduction-template

To Reproduce

1. Install Podman on macOS Apple Silicon (brew install podman)
2. Initialize the Podman machine: podman machine init && podman machine start
3. Create a new Next.js 16 project: npx create-next-app -e reproduction-template my-repro
4. Run the dev server inside a Podman container with a bind mount:

podman run -it --rm \
  --name nextjs-repro \
  -v "$(pwd)/my-repro:/usr/src/app:Z" \
  -w /usr/src/app \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  node:20-slim sh -c "npm install && npm run dev"

1. Open http://localhost:3000 in the browser
2. Edit src/app/page.tsx on the host machine
3. Observe the browser — no hot reload occurs
4. Manually reload the page — still shows the old content

Verify the volume mount works (it does):

podman exec -it nextjs-repro cat /usr/src/app/app/page.tsx
# Edit the file on host, re-run — the change IS visible inside the container

This confirms the issue is not the volume mount but Turbopack's watcher not receiving filesystem events.

Current vs. Expected behavior

Current: Turbopack does not detect any file changes made on the macOS host. Neither hot reload nor a manual browser refresh reflects edits. The dev server console shows no recompilation activity after saving a file.

Expected: Turbopack should detect file changes and trigger a rebuild, either by receiving inotify events (if the container runtime bridges them) or via a polling fallback option — the same way webpack exposes watchOptions.poll.

Workaround confirmed working: Falling back to --webpack with WATCHPACK_POLLING=true restores both hot reload and manual reload:

podman run -it --rm \
  -e WATCHPACK_POLLING=true \
  -v "$(pwd):/usr/src/app:Z" \
  -w /usr/src/app \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  node:20-slim sh -c "npm install && npx next dev --webpack"

This is a regression introduced by Turbopack becoming the default in Next.js 16, since --webpack + polling was a known and documented solution for containerized dev environments.

### Provide environment information

```bash
Operating System:
  Platform: darwin
  Arch: arm64
  Version: Darwin Kernel Version 24.6.0: Wed Oct 15 21:12:06 PDT 2025; root:xnu-11417.140.69.703.14~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000
  Available memory (MB): 16384
  Available CPU cores: 8
Binaries:
  Node: 22.21.1
  npm: 10.9.4
  Yarn: N/A
  pnpm: N/A
Relevant Packages:
  next: 16.2.0-canary.73 // Latest available version is detected (16.2.0-canary.73).
  eslint-config-next: N/A
  react: 19.2.4
  react-dom: 19.2.4
  typescript: 5.9.3
Next.js Config:
  output: N/A

Which area(s) are affected? (Select all that apply)

Turbopack

Which stage(s) are affected? (Select all that apply)

next dev (local)

Additional context

No response