How to disable home directory sharing by default?

[metachris]

I want to disable the default home directory sharing, as it's a security risk for many use-cases. What would also work is reliably sharing a custom directory to always be bound to /Users/{{.User}} inside the VM, and it should work across restarts.

I couldn't find a way to do this. I tried using .lima/_config/default.yaml as well as override.yaml but they still seem to get overwritten with the default home mount anyway, at least after restart.

Is there a way to remove or customize the default home directory sharing?

[metachris]

I noticed I can use an override such as this in override.yaml:

mounts:
- location: "~/VM-Shared/Home"
  mountPoint: "/Users/{{.User}}"
  writable: true

It works on initial start, but not anymore on restarts, and it's still mounting both (just the override one after the default one). I would like to actually disable the default mount:

Initial start:

$ mount | grep /Users
mount2 on /Users/metachris type virtiofs (ro,relatime)
mount4 on /Users/metachris type virtiofs (rw,relatime)

After restart:

$ mount | grep /Users
mount2 on /Users/metachris type virtiofs (ro,relatime)

[metachris]

The best way I found so far is to start an instance based on a raw yaml from the _images folder, like this:

limactl start --name test -y https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lima-vm/lima/refs/heads/master/templates/_images/ubuntu-25.10.yaml

Using a .lima/_config/default.yaml file like this:

mounts:
- location: "~/VM-Shared"
  mountPoint: "/Users/{{.User}}"
  writable: true

[zoltanpetrik]

I also ran into this and the culprit was using base templates (e.g. template:alpine). I could skip the default home mount by referencing only the image base instead:

base:
  - template:_images/alpine

Instead of template:alpine, which pulls in both _images/alpine and _default/mounts. The _default/mounts template is the one that adds location: "~". It should not make any other difference, just "losing" the home mount.

Then I added the mounts I actually wanted:

mounts:
  - location: "/path/to/something"
    mountPoint: "/data/something"
    writable: true

Example without fix:

zp@Zoltans-Mac-mini  % pwd
/Users/zp/Repos/GitHub/reponame/

zp@Zoltans-Mac-mini  % limactl shell vmname

lima-vmname:/Users/zp/Repos/GitHub/reponame$ cat fileonhost.txt
sensitiveinfo

Example with fix:

zp@Zoltans-Mac-mini  % pwd
/Users/zp/Repos/GitHub/reponame/

zp@Zoltans-Mac-mini  % limactl shell vmname
/bin/ash: cd: line 0: can't cd to /Users/zp/Repos/GitHub/reponame/: No such file or directory
/bin/ash: cd: line 0: can't cd to /Users/zp: No such file or directory

lima-vmname:~$ pwd
/home/vmusername.guest

lima-vmname:~$ exit

zp@Zoltans-Mac-mini  % limactl stop vmname
INFO[0000] Sending SIGINT to hostagent process 66846
...
INFO[0003] The instance vmname has shut down

zp@Zoltans-Mac-mini  % limactl start vmname
INFO[0000] Using the existing instance "vmname"
...
INFO[0031] READY. Run `limactl shell vmname` to open the shell.

zp@Zoltans-Mac-mini  % limactl shell vmname
/bin/ash: cd: line 0: can't cd to /Users/zp/Repos/GitHub/reponame/: No such file or directory
/bin/ash: cd: line 0: can't cd to /Users/zp: No such file or directory
lima-vmname:~$

[DustinVenegas]

Sharing of ${HOME} can be disabled by setting ${LIMA_HOME}/_templates/_default/mounts.yaml with the content mounts: [].

# Create the directory and set mounts
mkdir -p "$HOME/.lima/_templates/_default"
echo "mounts: []" >> "$HOME/.lima/_templates/_default/mounts.yaml"

# Verify Mounts for the default template
limactl template yq template:default '.mounts[]'

This works because the user-level config under ${LIMA_HOME} ($HOME/.lima) overrides the globally installed template at /opt/homebrew/share/lima/templates/_default/mounts.yaml.

[afbjorklund]

This would be a good addition to https://lima-vm.io/docs/examples/, how you change the default templates.

It probably also should be mentioned in templates/default.yaml, under "GLOBAL DEFAULTS AND OVERRIDES"