What causes "Commit directory does not exist: {}" in NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra?

Verify the directory exists: 'ls -la ' before running the command.

NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra · error · IOException

Commit directory does not exist: {}

Error message

Commit directory does not exist: {}

What it means

Thrown as IOException by checkDirectory() when the path given to commitsigs or commitupdates does not exist on the filesystem. Unlike the IllegalArgumentException argument-parsing errors, this is an I/O failure discovered when validating the directory that contains the signature/update XML files to be sent to the BSim server.

Source

Thrown at Ghidra/Features/BSim/src/main/java/ghidra/features/bsim/query/ingest/BSimLaunchable.java:666

		}

		try (BulkSignatures bsim = getBulkSignatures()) {
			if (commitOption) {
				// Generate and commit updates to BSim database
				bsim.updateRepoSignatures(ghidraURL, xmlDirectory, overwriteOption, monitor);
			}
			else {
				// Generate update XML files only
				bsim.generateUpdatesFromServer(ghidraURL, xmlDirectory, overwriteOption,
					configOption, monitor);
			}
		}
	}

	private File checkDirectory(String dirPath) throws IOException {
		File dir = new File(dirPath);
		if (!dir.exists()) {
			throw new IOException("Commit directory does not exist: " + dirPath);
		}
		if (!dir.isDirectory()) {
			throw new IOException(dirPath + ": is not a directory");
		}
		return dir.getCanonicalFile();
	}

	private void doCommitSigs(List<String> params, TaskMonitor monitor)
			throws IOException, SAXException, LSHException, CancelledException {
		if (params.size() < 1) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("Missing directory containing signature files");
		}

		String xmlDirectory = params.get(0);

		File dir = checkDirectory(xmlDirectory);

		boolean hasOverride = optionValueMap.containsKey(OVERRIDE_OPTION);

View on GitHub (pinned to d5f144c24d)

Solutions

Verify the directory exists: 'ls -la <dirPath>' before running the command.
Use an absolute path to avoid CWD ambiguity.
Re-run generatesigs/generateupdates to recreate the XML files if the directory was deleted.
Create the directory first if you intended to point at a fresh location, then populate it.

Example fix

# before
bsim commitsigs postgresql://myhost/BsimDB /tmp/xmout
# after (fix typo)
bsim commitsigs postgresql://myhost/BsimDB /tmp/xmlout

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Pre-check directory existence before calling run()
import java.io.File;
File dir = new File(dirPath);
if (!dir.exists()) {
    throw new IOException("Commit directory does not exist: " + dirPath);
}
if (!dir.isDirectory()) {
    throw new IOException(dirPath + ": is not a directory");
}

Try / catch

// In a calling program wrapping BSimLaunchable
try {
    launchable.launch(layout, params);
} catch (Exception e) {
    // IOException for FS problems exits with code 1; IllegalArgumentException with 22
    if (e instanceof IOException) {
        log.error("Filesystem error during BSim commit: {}", e.getMessage());
    }
    throw e;
}

Prevention

Always verify the XML output directory exists immediately before commitsigs/commitupdates.
Use absolute paths in scripts to avoid CWD-related surprises.
If generating and committing in one script, check the generatesigs/generateupdates exit code before proceeding to commit.

When it happens

Trigger: Running commitsigs or commitupdates with a path where new File(dirPath).exists() returns false (line 665). The path was never created, is misspelled, or points to a different working directory.

Common situations: Typo in the directory path; relative path evaluated from an unexpected CWD; the directory was cleaned up between generatesigs and commitsigs steps; Docker/container path mismatch; NFS mount not yet available.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra@d5f144c24d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/28186796eb5f22fc. Report an issue: GitHub.