Bazel permanently tries to access /root/.cache after container run as root

[hankhsu1996]

I'm running into a really weird Bazel issue and I'm starting to feel stuck.

Some time ago I accidentally ran Bazel inside a container as root. Ever since then, even on my host system, Bazel keeps trying to access /root/.cache when it starts. If it doesn't have permission, it fails the build immediately.

I've already done everything I can think of to reset the environment:

• Removed Bazel completely (sudo apt remove bazel)
• Deleted everything under /usr/local/, /usr/lib/, /usr/bin/ that looked Bazel-related
• Wiped all Bazel files in my home directory: ~/.cache/bazel, ~/.bazel*, .bazeliskrc, .bazelversion, and .bazelrc
• Cleared ~/.local/bazel_cache and ~/.cache/bazelisk
• Verified there's no BAZEL_* environment variables set
• Confirmed $HOME is correct and not /root
• Added startup --output_user_root=/home/myuser/.bazel-output-root to .bazelrc
• Also tried specifying --output_base, --nohome_rc, --nosystem_rc, and --host_jvm_args="-Duser.home=$HOME"
• Tried using Bazelisk instead of system Bazel
• Tried skipping the embedded JDK and using system OpenJDK 17 (with BAZELISK_SKIP_JDK_DOWNLOAD=1 and proper JAVA_HOME)
• Also ran strace, which showed that something still tries to stat /root/.cache, even though I’ve pointed everything to user-local paths
• Tried replacing /root/.cache with a symlink to /dev/null, or making it chmod 000 — nothing helped
• I’ve also been doing bazel shutdown between runs

No matter what I try, I always get this on every build:

ERROR: Failed to get information about path, for bazel-workspace, skipping: /root/.cache (Permission denied)
ERROR: /root/.cache (Permission denied)
ERROR: Build did NOT complete successfully

It really feels like Bazel got “stuck” in some state after being run as root once, and now even after wiping everything and reinstalling cleanly, it still somehow remembers that /root/.cache path. I can't find where it's coming from anymore.

Is this expected behavior? Has anyone else hit something like this before?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. At this point it feels like the only thing left is to wipe the OS entirely and reinstall.

[benjaminp]

Make sure to clean out any Bazel convenience symlinks bazel-* in the workspace directory.

[hankhsu1996]

I realized that only this Bazel project had the issue; other Bazel projects were fine. Eventually, I found that a symlink in the project folder was causing the problem:

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root    root      78 Apr 24 23:59 bazel-workspace -> /root/.cache/bazel/_bazel_root/eab0d61a99b6696edb3d2aff87b585e8/execroot/_main

Thanks, @benjaminp!