cannot find PKGBUILD and .SRCINFO in directory

Error message

cannot find PKGBUILD and .SRCINFO in directory: %s

What it means

The wrapped form of ErrNoBuildFiles returned at the end of srcinfoExists: the target directory has no .SRCINFO (or it couldn't be generated) and no PKGBUILD, so neither build file required for a local install is present. The %s names the offending directory. It is the terminal fall-through of the file-presence checks and generation attempt.

Solutions

Point yay -B at a directory that actually contains a PKGBUILD
Clone the PKGBUILD from the AUR or ABS into the target directory
Verify the path for typos or trailing characters

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at local_install.go:56 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of Jguer/yay@328f4b4939 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/89934d0310336f95. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at local_install.go:56

	if _, err := os.Stat(pkgbuildDir); err == nil {
		// run makepkg to generate .SRCINFO
		srcinfo, stderr, err := cmdBuilder.Capture(cmdBuilder.BuildMakepkgCmd(ctx, targetDir, "--printsrcinfo"))
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("unable to generate .SRCINFO: %w - %s", err, stderr)
		}

		if srcinfo == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("generated .SRCINFO is empty, check your PKGBUILD for errors")
		}

		if err := os.WriteFile(srcInfoDir, []byte(srcinfo), 0o600); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("unable to write .SRCINFO: %w", err)
		}

		return nil
	}

	return fmt.Errorf("%w: %s", ErrNoBuildFiles, targetDir)
}

func installLocalPKGBUILD(
	ctx context.Context,
	run *runtime.Runtime,
	cmdArgs *parser.Arguments,
	dbExecutor db.Executor,
) error {
	aurCache := run.AURClient
	noCheck := strings.Contains(run.Cfg.MFlags, "--nocheck")

	if len(cmdArgs.Targets) < 1 {
		return errors.New(gotext.Get("no target directories specified"))
	}

	srcInfos := map[string]*gosrc.Srcinfo{}
	for _, targetDir := range cmdArgs.Targets {
		if err := srcinfoExists(ctx, run.CmdBuilder, targetDir); err != nil {

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