BurntSushi/ripgrep · error

failed to find an index to read

Error message

failed to find an index to read

What it means

Error "failed to find an index to read" thrown in BurntSushi/ripgrep.

Source

Thrown at crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs:951

    }

    #[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
/// low->high argument conversions. The state can even be mutated by various
/// conversions as a way to communicate changes to other conversions. For
/// example, reading patterns might consume from stdin. If we know stdin
/// has been consumed and no other file paths have been given, then we know
/// for sure that we should search the CWD. In this way, a state change
/// when reading the patterns can impact how the file paths are ultimately
/// generated.
#[derive(Debug)]
struct State {
    /// Whether it's believed that tty is connected to stdout. Note that on

View on GitHub (pinned to 3fce3b5bb0)

Solutions

1. Create an index first before attempting to read one
2. Verify the index path points to an existing, readable index

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs:951 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/9495aefb9f056a8d.json. Report an issue: GitHub.