NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra · error · RuntimeError

Already connected

Error message

Already connected

What it means

Raised by State.require_no_client when STATE.client is not None (already connected). This guard prevents duplicate connections; ghidra_trace_connect and ghidra_trace_listen both call require_no_client to ensure a connection does not already exist before opening a new one.

Source

Thrown at Ghidra/Debug/Debugger-agent-x64dbg/src/main/py/src/ghidraxdbg/commands.py:123

    def require_rm(self) -> arch.DefaultRegisterMapper:
        if self.register_mapper is None:
            raise RuntimeError("No register mapper")
        return self.register_mapper


class State(object):

    def __init__(self) -> None:
        self.reset_client()

    def require_client(self) -> Client:
        if self.client is None:
            raise RuntimeError("Not connected")
        return self.client

    def require_no_client(self) -> None:
        if self.client != None:
            raise RuntimeError("Already connected")

    def reset_client(self) -> None:
        self.client: Optional[Client] = None
        self.reset_trace()

    def require_trace(self) -> Trace[Extra]:
        if self.trace is None:
            raise RuntimeError("No trace active")
        return self.trace

    def require_no_trace(self) -> None:
        if self.trace != None:
            raise RuntimeError("Trace already started")

    def reset_trace(self) -> None:
        self.trace: Optional[Trace[Extra]] = None
        util.set_convenience_variable('_ghidra_tracing', "false")
        self.reset_tx()

View on GitHub (pinned to d5f144c24d)

Solutions

1. Call 'ghidra_trace_disconnect' before establishing a new connection.
2. Check STATE.client is None before calling ghidra_trace_connect or ghidra_trace_listen.
3. Add STATE.reset_client() in error recovery paths to clean up stale connections.

Example fix

# before: connect while already connected
ghidra_trace_connect('127.0.0.1:12345')  # first connection
ghidra_trace_connect('127.0.0.1:9999')   # Already connected

# after: disconnect first
if STATE.client is not None:
    ghidra_trace_disconnect()
ghidra_trace_connect('127.0.0.1:9999')

if STATE.client is not None:
    raise RuntimeError("Already connected; run 'ghidra trace disconnect' first")

def is_not_connected() -> bool:
    return STATE.client is None

try:
    ghidra_trace_connect(address)
except RuntimeError:
    if 'Already connected' in str(e):
        ghidra_trace_disconnect()
        ghidra_trace_connect(address)
    else:
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: ghidra_trace_connect or ghidra_trace_listen is called when STATE.client already holds an active Client. The require_no_client guard fires because a connection already exists.

Common situations: User ran 'ghidra trace connect' twice without disconnecting in between. A previous connection was not properly reset (e.g. the script re-ran without cleanup). The user switched from connect to listen mode without disconnecting first.

Related errors

• Not connected
• Trace already started
• No memory mapper
• No register mapper
• No trace active

AI-assisted analysis of NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra@d5f144c24d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c1a52ea627039389. Report an issue: GitHub.