What causes "Failed to get the exception recipient list: %w" in Billionmail/BillionMail?

Inspect the wrapped %w error — 'sql: no rows' variants vs connection vs scan-type errors need different fixes.

Failed to get the exception recipient list: %w

Error message

Failed to get the exception recipient list: %w

What it means

After counting, GetListWithPage fetches one page of abnormal recipients ordered by create_time DESC; a Scan failure is wrapped as 'Failed to get the exception recipient list'. Like the count error, this indicates a database read failure on the list query.

Source

Thrown at core/internal/service/abnormal_recipient/abnormal_recipient.go:42

	if keyword != "" {
		model = model.WhereLike("recipient", "%"+keyword+"%")
	}
	if addType > 0 {
		model = model.Where("add_type", addType)
	}

	total, err = model.Count()
	if err != nil {
		return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("Failed to get the total number of exception recipients: %w", err)
	}

	list = make([]*entity.AbnormalRecipient, 0)
	err = model.Page(page, pageSize).
		Order("create_time DESC").
		Scan(&list)

	if err != nil {
		return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("Failed to get the exception recipient list: %w", err)
	}

	return total, list, nil
}

func Add(ctx context.Context, recipient string) error {

	now := time.Now().Unix()
	_, err := g.DB().Model("abnormal_recipient").
		Data(g.Map{
			"recipient":   recipient,
			"count":       3,
			"add_type":    1,
			"description": "Manually added",
			"create_time": now,
		}).
		InsertIgnore()

View on GitHub (pinned to fc36c76c05)

Solutions

Inspect the wrapped %w error — 'sql: no rows' variants vs connection vs scan-type errors need different fixes.
Run migrations to reconcile the entity.AbnormalRecipient struct with the actual table schema.
Check DB connectivity and retry if the failure was transient.
Compare entity field types against the table columns if the error mentions scan/conversion.

Example fix

// before
err = model.Page(page, pageSize).Order("create_time DESC").Scan(&list)
if err != nil { return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("Failed to get the exception recipient list: %w", err) }
// after
if err := model.Page(page, pageSize).Order("create_time DESC").Scan(&list); err != nil {
    return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("Failed to get the exception recipient list (page=%d, size=%d): %w", page, pageSize, err)
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// validate pagination inputs before the call
if page < 1 || pageSize < 1 || pageSize > 500 {
  return errors.New("invalid pagination parameters")
}

Try / catch

total, list, err := abnormal_recipient.GetListWithPage(ctx, page, pageSize, addType)
if err != nil {
  if isTransientDBError(err) { // timeouts, connection resets
    return retryWithBackoff(3, func() error { _, _, err = GetListWithPage(...); return err })
  }
  return err
}

Prevention

Keep entity.AbnormalRecipient in sync with table schema via migrations
Distinguish transient (retry) from permanent (schema) DB errors
Clamp pageSize to reasonable bounds to avoid heavy scans
Alert on DB error rates for list endpoints

When it happens

Trigger: ListAbnormalRecipient with valid pagination while the page/order Scan fails: DB unreachable, table missing, or row data that cannot be scanned into entity.AbnormalRecipient (schema/type mismatch after migration).

Common situations: Schema drift where a column type changed and scanning fails; transient connection drop between Count and Scan; missing table on a fresh environment; corrupted rows.

Understand the failure class

Background: Database query failed: Internal Server Error 500s wrapping SQL, Prisma, and connection failures — what to check first — this error's family across 16 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Billionmail/BillionMail@fc36c76c05 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c16a0b53f72a3f07. Report an issue: GitHub.