BurntSushi/ripgrep · error

failed to find a place to create/update an index

Error message

failed to find a place to create/update an index

What it means

Error "failed to find a place to create/update an index" thrown in BurntSushi/ripgrep.

Source

Thrown at crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs:941

            assert_eq!(1, self.threads, "sorting implies single threaded");
            if !sort.reverse && matches!(sort.kind, SortModeKind::Path) {
                builder.sort_by_file_name(|a, b| a.cmp(b));
            }
        }
        Ok(builder)
    }

    pub(crate) fn index(&self) -> usize {
        self.index
    }

    #[cfg(feature = "unstable-index")]
    pub(crate) fn index_write(&self) -> anyhow::Result<grep_index::Index> {
        let index = grep_index::IndexDiscovery::new()
            .create(true)
            .discover()?
            .ok_or_else(|| {
                anyhow::anyhow!(
                    "failed to find a place to create/update an index"
                )
            })?;
        Ok(index)
    }

    #[cfg(feature = "unstable-index")]
    pub(crate) fn index_read(&self) -> anyhow::Result<grep_index::Index> {
        let index = grep_index::IndexDiscovery::new().discover()?.ok_or_else(
            || anyhow::anyhow!("failed to find an index to read"),
        )?;
        Ok(index)
    }
}

/// State that only needs to be computed once during argument parsing.
///
/// This state is meant to be somewhat generic and shared across multiple

View on GitHub (pinned to 3fce3b5bb0)

Solutions

1. Specify a writable index location explicitly
2. Check directory permissions and available disk space where the index would be created

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs:941 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of BurntSushi/ripgrep@3fce3b5bb0 (2026-08-06). Data as JSON: /data/errors/b1c2a9963441dfb7.json. Report an issue: GitHub.