Jguer/yay · error

invalid status code

Error message

invalid status code: %d

What it means

GetPackageScanner fetches a package list (AUR packages.gz / packages-metadata) over HTTP and requires HTTP 200. Any other status (404, 403, 5xx) closes the body and returns 'invalid status code: <code>'. Callers like syncList and createAURList then fail to build the AUR package list.

Solutions

1. Retry later or check https://status.archlinux.org — 5xx/429 usually means AUR is down or rate-limiting
2. Verify the aururl config (yay -Pg) points to https://aur.archlinux.org and correct it if overridden
3. Test connectivity manually: curl -I https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.gz to see the actual status
4. If behind a proxy, set/clear HTTP(S)_PROXY env vars and ensure they allow the AUR domain

Example fix

// before
resp, _ := http.Get(aurURL + "/packages.gz") // blindly fails: invalid status code: 503
// after
resp, _ := http.Get(aurURL + "/packages.gz")
if resp != nil && resp.StatusCode == http.StatusTooManyRequests {
    time.Sleep(retryAfterDelay(resp)) // honor backoff, then retry once
    resp, _ = http.Get(aurURL + "/packages.gz")
}
// and check configured URL: curl -I $aurUrl/packages.gz before blaming the client

u := cfg.AurURL + "/packages.gz"
if pu, err := url.Parse(u); err != nil || pu.Scheme != "https" || pu.Host == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("invalid aurUrl %q", u)
}
// preflight: resp, err := http.Head(u); ok := err == nil && resp.StatusCode == 200

var body []byte
for attempt := 0; attempt < 3; attempt++ {
    body, err = fetchPackagesGz(ctx)
    if err == nil { break }
    var sce interface{ StatusCode() int }
    if errors.As(err, &anyResp{}) || strings.Contains(err.Error(), "invalid status code") {
        time.Sleep(time.Duration(1<<attempt) * time.Second) // backoff for 429/5xx
        continue
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: The HTTP GET of the AUR metadata endpoint returns a non-200 status: AUR server outage/503, wrong aurUrl in config, rate limiting (429), captive proxy returning 403, or DNS/routing to a stale mirror returning 404.

Common situations: AUR maintenance windows or heavy load (5xx); custom aururl pointing at an old domain; corporate proxy blocking the request; typos in aururl config.

Related errors

• package not found in repos
• failed to retrieve aur Cache
• problem importing keys
• failed to parse
• error resetting

AI-assisted analysis of Jguer/yay@328f4b4939 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/52315c25b2c4ee52. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at pkg/download/aur.go:138

// GetPackageScanner fetches the AUR packages.gz file and returns a scanner for reading its contents.
// The caller must call Close() on the returned ScannerCloser when done to properly release resources.
func GetPackageScanner(ctx context.Context, client HTTPRequestDoer, aurURL string, logger *text.Logger) (*ScannerCloser, error) {
	u, err := url.Parse(aurURL)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	u.Path = path.Join(u.Path, "packages.gz")
	packagesURL := u.String()

	resp, err := client.Get(packagesURL)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		resp.Body.Close()
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid status code: %d", resp.StatusCode)
	}

	// Read the entire body to allow trying gzip decompression
	body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	resp.Body.Close()

	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	// Try to decompress as gzip; if that fails, use raw body
	var reader io.Reader
	var closer io.Closer

	gzReader, gzErr := gzip.NewReader(bytes.NewReader(body))
	if gzErr == nil {
		reader = gzReader
		closer = gzReader

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