SonarSource/sonarqube · critical · IllegalStateException

Temp directory is not writable: %s

Error message

Temp directory is not writable: %s

What it means

MinimumViableSystem.checkWritableDir verifies a directory is writable by creating and deleting a temp file in it. If File.createTempFile throws IOException, the directory is not writable and an IllegalStateException is thrown.

Source

Thrown at server/sonar-process/src/main/java/org/sonar/process/MinimumViableSystem.java:47

import static org.sonar.process.FileUtils2.deleteQuietly;

public class MinimumViableSystem {

  /**
   * Verify that temp directory is writable
   */
  public MinimumViableSystem checkWritableTempDir() {
    checkWritableDir(System.getProperty("java.io.tmpdir"));
    return this;
  }

  // Visible for testing
  void checkWritableDir(String tempPath) {
    try {
      File tempFile = File.createTempFile("check", "tmp", new File(tempPath));
      deleteQuietly(tempFile);
    } catch (IOException e) {
      throw new IllegalStateException(format("Temp directory is not writable: %s", tempPath), e);
    }
  }

  public MinimumViableSystem checkRequiredJavaOptions(Map<String, String> requiredJavaOptions) {
    for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : requiredJavaOptions.entrySet()) {
      String value = System.getProperty(entry.getKey());
      if (!CS.equals(value, entry.getValue())) {
        throw new MessageException(format(
          "JVM option '%s' must be set to '%s'. Got '%s'", entry.getKey(), entry.getValue(), StringUtils.defaultString(value)));
      }
    }
    return this;
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 184c821202)

Solutions

1. Ensure the temp directory exists and grant the JVM user write permission on it
2. Set -Djava.io.tmpdir to a valid writable path
3. Check disk free space
4. Inspect the wrapped IOException cause for the precise OS error

Example fix

// before
java -jar sonar.jar
// after
java -Djava.io.tmpdir=/var/tmp/sonar -jar sonar.jar  # with /var/tmp/sonar writable

File tmp = new File(System.getProperty("java.io.tmpdir"));
if (!tmp.isDirectory() || !tmp.canWrite()) {
  throw new IllegalStateException("Temp dir missing or not writable: " + tmp);
}

try { mvs.checkWritableTemp(); } catch (IllegalStateException e) { LOGGER.error("Fix java.io.tmpdir permissions", e); System.exit(1); }

When it happens

Trigger: checkWritableTemp() (or checkWritableDir) run against a temp directory that is read-only, does not exist, or denies write permission to the JVM user.

Common situations: java.io.tmpdir points to a missing or read-only path; process runs under a restricted service account; disk full; sandboxed/containerized environment with limited permissions.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Permission denied" / "Failed to write" file errors: why a library can't write its files to disk (EACCES, EPERM, ENOSPC) and how to fix them — this error's family across 43 libraries.

Related errors

• Can not delete
• Can not move file to
• Directory could not be created
• Can not open file
• Could not delete Elasticsearch temporary conf directory

AI-assisted analysis of SonarSource/sonarqube@184c821202 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/42fa9a3b6fc3c489. Report an issue: GitHub.