FuelLabs/fuels-rs · error

failed grep command

Error message

failed grep command

What it means

check-docs shells out to the grep binary via std::process::Command and expects the spawn itself to succeed. The expect fires when grep cannot be spawned at all, most commonly because grep is not installed or not on PATH. A grep that runs but exits non-zero is a different, separately handled error (bail!).

Source

Thrown at scripts/check-docs/src/lib.rs:240

                .expect("could not canonicalize md path");

            (!md_files_summary.contains(&file))
                .then(|| anyhow!("file `{}` not in SUMMARY.md", file.to_str().unwrap()))
        })
        .collect()
}

pub fn search_for_pattern(pattern: &str, location: &str) -> anyhow::Result<String> {
    let grep_project = std::process::Command::new("grep")
        .arg("-H") // print filename
        .arg("-n") // print line-number
        .arg("-r") // search recursively
        .arg("--binary-files=without-match")
        .arg("--exclude-dir=check-docs")
        .arg(pattern)
        .arg(location)
        .output()
        .expect("failed grep command");

    if !grep_project.status.success() {
        bail!("Failed running `grep` command for pattern '{}'", pattern);
    }

    Ok(String::from_utf8(grep_project.stdout)?)
}

pub fn find_files(pattern: &str, location: &str, exclude: &str) -> anyhow::Result<String> {
    let find = std::process::Command::new("find")
        .args([
            location, "-type", "f", "-name", pattern, "!", "-name", exclude,
        ])
        .output()
        .expect("Program `find` not in PATH");

    if !find.status.success() {
        bail!("Failed running `find` command for pattern {}", pattern);

View on GitHub (pinned to d9a250a518)

Solutions

1. Install grep in the execution image (apt-get install -y grep / apk add grep)
2. Run the script in the CI image that already ships core utilities
3. Fix PATH if grep exists on disk but is not found

Example fix

# before: minimal image without coreutils
RUN cargo run -p scripts/check-docs

# after: install grep first
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y grep
cargo run -p scripts/check-docs

# (shell) availability check before running check-docs
command -v grep >/dev/null || { echo 'grep is required by check-docs'; exit 1; }

When it happens

Trigger: Running check-docs in a minimal container image (distroless, scratch-based) without grep installed, or with a PATH scrubbed by the CI environment so Command::new("grep") cannot resolve the binary.

Common situations: Lean CI images lacking core utilities; PATH misconfiguration; cross-environment script runs.

Related errors

• Program `find` not in PATH
• could not canonicalize md path
• No anchor available to satisfy include {include:?}
• Anchor unused: {unused_anchor:?}!
• {the_path:?} when canonicalized gives error {err:?}\ninclude

AI-assisted analysis of FuelLabs/fuels-rs@d9a250a518 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d53c5b6b711129d8. Report an issue: GitHub.