WSL2: daemon deletes PID record when ps start time shifts, leaving a running app-server unmanaged

What version of Codex CLI is running?

0.153.4

What subscription do you have?

Plus

Which model were you using?

No response

What platform is your computer?

WSL2 Ubuntu 26.04 (Kernel 6.18.33.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2)

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

WSL2

Codex doctor report

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "generatedAt": "1788925135s since unix epoch",
  "overallStatus": "fail",
  "codexVersion": "0.153.4",
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        "pid file": "<HOME>/.codex/app-server-daemon/app-server.pid (missing)",
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        "status": "running",
        "update-loop pid file": "<HOME>/.codex/app-server-daemon/app-server-updater.pid (file)"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 109
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      "id": "auth.credentials",
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      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "auth is configured",
      "details": {
        "auth file": "<HOME>/.codex/auth.json",
        "auth storage mode": "File",
        "stored API key": "false",
        "stored ChatGPT tokens": "true",
        "stored agent identity": "false",
        "stored auth mode": "chatgpt"
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      "remediation": null,
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    "state.paths": {
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      "summary": "state paths and databases are inspectable",
      "details": {
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        "goals DB": "<HOME>/.codex/goals_1.sqlite (file)",
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    "system.environment": {
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          "cause": "TERM=dumb - colors and cursor control are disabled",
          "measured": "TERM=dumb",
          "expected": "TERM=xterm-256color or another real terminal type",
          "remedy": "set TERM to a real value, for example xterm-256color",
          "fields": [
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    }
  }
}

What issue are you seeing?

Environment

Codex CLI and app-server: 0.153.4
WSL2 kernel: 6.18.33.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2
ps: procps-ng 4.0.4

Problem

I repeatedly encounter:

Error: app server is running but is not managed by codex app-server daemon

The app-server remains running and reachable, but ~/.codex/app-server-daemon/app-server.pid disappears.

Evidence

For the same running process, PID 1293355, the recorded and subsequently reported start times differed:

Previously saved processStartTime: Tue Sep 8 08:13:10 2026
Later ps -p 1293355 -o lstart=: Tue Sep 8 08:13:03 2026

Codex compares these strings to validate process identity. A mismatch causes it to classify the record as stale and delete the PID file, even though the server is still running.

I reproduced this using the installed Codex binary, temporary daemon state directories, and the existing server’s control socket:

Write a temporary PID record using the historical start time.
Run codex app-server daemon version against that temporary state.
The command reports the server as running but deletes the temporary PID record.
Repeat using the current start time: the record remains, and the response includes "backend":"pid".

The live server remained running throughout. This also demonstrates that a seemingly informational daemon version command can remove management metadata.

Expected behavior

A change in the formatted wall-clock start time should not cause a live daemon to lose its management record. Status queries should ideally avoid destructive metadata cleanup.

Possible cause and fix

The observed seven-second shift is consistent with a clock adjustment in WSL2, but we do not have logs identifying the specific clock event.

On Linux, consider identifying processes using boot ID plus /proc/<pid>/stat start-time ticks instead of comparing formatted ps timestamps. Process visibility failures should also be distinguished from confirmed process termination.

Relevant code: PID identity validation and stale-record cleanup.

Workaround

I switched to a custom systemd user service that directly runs:

codex app-server --remote-control --listen unix://

This avoids relying on Codex daemon’s PID tracking.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Start a managed app-server in WSL2 using codex app-server daemon start (tested with Codex 0.153.4).
Record the pid and processStartTime from ~/.codex/app-server-daemon/app-server.pid.
After a clock adjustment, compare the recorded time with:
```
ps -p <pid> -o lstart=
```
In our case, the same running process changed from 08:13:10 to 08:13:03. We have not identified a deterministic trigger for this WSL clock shift.
Run:
```
codex app-server daemon version
```
Observe that the PID file is deleted even though the app-server remains running.

Run:

codex app-server daemon restart

It fails with:

Error: app server is running but is not managed by codex app-server daemon

Deterministic reproduction of the faulty validation: We also tested with temporary Codex state directories pointing to the existing server’s control socket. A PID record containing the historical start time was deleted by daemon version; an otherwise identical record containing the current ps start time was preserved and returned "backend":"pid". The live server remained running throughout.

What is the expected behavior?

No response

Additional information

No response

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

macOS: locale-dependent PID start-time comparison deletes live app-server daemon tracking record #43608

Powered by Codex Action

This is the same PID-identity class as #43608 (which I root-caused and posted: macOS pid.rs compares the formatted ps lstart= string, and it becomes locale/locale-dependent), but your WSL2 report is stronger and reveals a deeper fragility — so worth treating as the more general case. Verified current on origin/main (codex-rs/app-server-daemon/src/backend/pid.rs):

1. Identity validation is a string equality on the formatted wall-clock value. The unix process_matches_record (pid.rs:537):

match read_process_details(record.pid).await {
    Ok((state, start_time)) => {
        if state.starts_with('Z') { ... return Ok(false); }
        Ok(start_time == record.process_start_time)
    }
    ...
}

2. read_process_details reads the human-formatted ps lstart=. (pid.rs:681):

.args(["-p", &pid.to_string(), "-o", "stat=", "-o", "lstart="])

so the comparison is on ps's formatted wall-clock string, not an epoch/ticks value.

3. Stale-cleanup deletes the PID file on mismatch. Failed matching routes to refresh_after_stale_record (pid.rs:300), which does fs::remove_file(&self.pid_file) when the record no longer matches — turning what should be a read-only status query (daemon version) into destructive metadata removal for a still-running daemon. That's the "Status queries should ideally avoid destructive metadata cleanup" concern you flagged.

Why your case is broader than #43608. My #43608 fix was to pin LC_ALL=C/TZ so both the ps call from the capture path and the re-query run under the same locale — that handles a format mismatch. But you've shown the value itself can change: a WSL2 clock adjustment shifted the same running process from 08:13:10 to 08:13:03 (a 7-second wall-clock change), which no locale pin fixes because the underlying string input genuinely differs. So the string-formatted ps lstart= approach is intrinsically fragile for identity validation, independent of locale. Your boot ID + /proc/<pid>/stat start-time-ticks suggestion is the right direction — /proc/<pid>/stat field 22 is an OS-boot-anchored ticks value that is stable across NTP/clock adjustments and locale, and the boot id (/proc/sys/kernel/random/boot_id) disambiguates PID reuse across boots. Two notes to fold in:

Do not conflate "process visibility" with "confirmed termination." Already handled in process_matches_record (:537-551) — a kill(pid,0) success but non-matching start time should read as "unknown/ambiguous," not "stale." Your repro (live server + deleted PID) is precisely the case where the process is demonstrably alive yet gets classified stale.
Avoid destructive side effects on status/version queries. refresh_after_stale_record (pid.rs:300-310) is the chokepoint; it's worth gating the remove_file or splitting "queryable but not matched" from "confirmed gone."

I'd suggest consolidating #43608 + this into one fix that moves to a locale/clock-robust identity source (boot-id + proc stat ticks, or normalize lstart to epoch before compare) on both the capture and re-query paths, and keep the query path read-only. This is a clean, self-contained codex-rs bug that I can implement as a fork PR if you'd like a hand. Cross-linking so the maintainers see the macOS + WSL2 picture together.

Still reproducible on Codex CLI/app-server 0.155.1 under WSL2.

I hit the same symptom:

$ codex app-server daemon restart
Error: app server is running but is not managed by codex app-server daemon

I killed the old app-server and started a completely fresh managed daemon:

$ codex app-server daemon start
{"status":"started","backend":"pid","pid":244084,...,"cliVersion":"0.155.1","appServerVersion":"0.155.1"}

Immediately after startup, ~/.codex/app-server-daemon/app-server.pid existed and contained:

{
  "pid": 244084,
  "processStartTime": "토  9월 19 09:55:16 2026"
}

The same live process was then reported by ps as:

$ ps -p 244084 -o lstart=
토  9월 19 09:55:17 2026

More importantly, repeated calls for the same PID showed that lstart continued to shift while the process remained alive:

토  9월 19 09:55:17 2026
토  9월 19 09:55:17 2026
토  9월 19 09:55:17 2026
토  9월 19 09:55:17 2026
토  9월 19 09:55:17 2026
토  9월 19 09:55:17 2026
토  9월 19 09:55:17 2026
토  9월 19 09:55:18 2026
토  9월 19 09:55:18 2026
토  9월 19 09:55:18 2026

After running codex app-server daemon restart, it failed with the "not managed" error and app-server.pid had been deleted, while PID 244084 was still running.

So this is still reproducible in 0.155.1, and in this case the ps wall-clock start time visibly changed from 09:55:17 to 09:55:18 for the same live PID.

This seems to further confirm that wall-clock lstart is not stable enough for process identity validation under WSL2. A monotonic process-start identifier such as /proc/<pid>/stat field 22 (starttime, clock ticks since boot) may avoid the issue.

Yes, this change didn't make it into 0.155.1. It should be in 0.156.0.

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WSL2: daemon deletes PID record when ps start time shifts, leaving a running app-server unmanaged #44037

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WSL2: daemon deletes PID record when ps start time shifts, leaving a running app-server unmanaged #44037

Description

What version of Codex CLI is running?

What subscription do you have?

Which model were you using?

What platform is your computer?

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

Codex doctor report

What issue are you seeing?

Environment

Problem

Evidence

Expected behavior

Possible cause and fix

Workaround

What steps can reproduce the bug?

What is the expected behavior?

Additional information

Activity

github-actions commented on Sep 9, 2026

argszero commented on Sep 9, 2026

hdformat commented on Sep 19, 2026

etraut-openai commented on Sep 19, 2026

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