Rename an existing instance

[maxenglander]

I would like to rename an existing instance, e.g. limactl instance rename new-name. I saw a similar question, but it didn't seem to be asking the same thing, or the solution didn't seem like what I am looking for.

Is this possible? I did try simply moving the instance folder with mv ~/.lima/<old-name> ~/.lima/<new-name> The <new-name> showed up in limactl list, but when I tried to start the instance after that, it failed.

[ypresto]

If you have below error in /Users/username/.lima/default/ha.stderr.log, then it is because the diffdisk is pointing old path of basedisk.

{"level":"debug","msg":"qemu[stderr]: qemu-system-aarch64: -drive file=/Users/<username>/.lima/<new-name>/diffdisk,if=virtio,discard=on: Could not open backing file: Could not open '/Users/<username>/.lima/<old-name>/basedisk': No such file or directory","time":"2023-06-02T02:53:38+09:00"}

Then you can fix it by qemu-img command (before that, creating backup (cp diffdisk diffdisk_bak) is recommended)

cp ~/.lima/<new-name>
qemu-img rebase -u -F qcow2 -b basedisk diffdisk