What causes "source file/directory does not exist: %s" in Billionmail/BillionMail?

Check each source exists with os.Stat before calling Compress and fix/omit missing entries

source file/directory does not exist: %s

Error message

source file/directory does not exist: %s

What it means

Before adding each source to the rar command's argument list, Compress stats the absolute source path. If os.Stat fails (missing file/directory or a permission error surfaced as ENOENT), it reports the original source string in this error and aborts the whole compression.

Source

Thrown at core/internal/service/compress/rar.go:190

		return err
	}

	// prepare command arguments
	args := []string{"a", "-ep1", "-r"}

	// add destination file
	args = append(args, dstAbs)

	// validate each source and add it to command
	for _, src := range srcList {
		srcAbs, err := filepath.Abs(src)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}

		// make sure source exists
		if _, err := os.Stat(srcAbs); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("source file/directory does not exist: %s", src)
		}

		// add source to arguments
		args = append(args, srcAbs)
	}

	// create command
	cmd := exec.Command("rar", args...)

	// run command
	output, err := cmd.CombinedOutput()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("rar compression failed: %s - %s", err, string(output))
	}

	// verify the file was created
	if _, err := os.Stat(dstAbs); err != nil {
		return errors.New("rar file was not created successfully")

View on GitHub (pinned to fc36c76c05)

Solutions

Check each source exists with os.Stat before calling Compress and fix/omit missing entries
Use absolute paths (filepath.Abs) instead of relying on the process working directory
Verify symlinks resolve to existing targets
Fix path casing/encoding if the archive job runs on a case-sensitive filesystem

Example fix

// before
err := r.Compress("out.rar", "logs/app.log") // cwd differs in service
// after
src, _ := filepath.Abs("logs/app.log")
if _, err := os.Stat(src); err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
err := r.Compress("out.rar", src)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

for _, src := range srcList {
	abs, err := filepath.Abs(src)
	if err != nil { return err }
	if _, err := os.Stat(abs); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("source missing: %s", src)
	}
}

Try / catch

if err := r.Compress(dst, srcList...); err != nil {
	var missing string
	if _, e := fmt.Sscanf(err.Error(), "source file/directory does not exist: %s", &missing); e == nil {
		log.Printf("skipping job, missing source: %s", missing)
	}
}

Prevention

os.Stat every source before scheduling compression
Use absolute paths; do not depend on process cwd
Resolve and verify symlinks before archiving
Re-list source files immediately before the job to avoid races with cleanup

When it happens

Trigger: Calling RarUnpacker.Compress(dst, srcList...) where any entry in srcList does not exist at the given path — typo'd path, file deleted between listing and compression, wrong working directory for a relative path, or a symlink to a missing target.

Common situations: Relative paths used with a different cwd in a daemon vs. shell; temp files cleaned up before compression; case-sensitivity mismatch (Windows-built path on Linux).

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Billionmail/BillionMail@fc36c76c05 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6d8ea03e9f2fc47a. Report an issue: GitHub.