affaan-m/ECC · error

Failed to create directory '${dirPath}': ${err.message}

Error message

Failed to create directory '${dirPath}': ${err.message}

What it means

ensureDir wraps fs.mkdirSync({recursive:true}) and re-throws any error whose code is not EEXIST (EEXIST is tolerated as a benign race). It fires for permission, disk-space, read-only-filesystem, path-too-long, and quota errors coming from the OS. The thrown message interpolates dirPath and the underlying err.message so the caller can see both the target and the OS reason.

Source

Thrown at scripts/lib/utils.js:102

function getTempDir() {
  return os.tmpdir();
}

/**
 * Ensure a directory exists (create if not)
 * @param {string} dirPath - Directory path to create
 * @returns {string} The directory path
 * @throws {Error} If directory cannot be created (e.g., permission denied)
 */
function ensureDir(dirPath) {
  try {
    if (!fs.existsSync(dirPath)) {
      fs.mkdirSync(dirPath, { recursive: true });
    }
  } catch (err) {
    // EEXIST is fine (race condition with another process creating it)
    if (err.code !== 'EEXIST') {
      throw new Error(`Failed to create directory '${dirPath}': ${err.message}`);
    }
  }
  return dirPath;
}

/**
 * Get current date in YYYY-MM-DD format
 */
function getDateString() {
  const now = new Date();
  const year = now.getFullYear();
  const month = String(now.getMonth() + 1).padStart(2, '0');
  const day = String(now.getDate()).padStart(2, '0');
  return `${year}-${month}-${day}`;
}

/**
 * Get current time in HH:MM format

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

1. Check write permission on the parent: `ls -ld <parent>` and `test -w <parent>`; chmod/chown or rerun as the owner.
2. Free disk/inodes: `df -h <dirPath>` and `df -i <dirPath>`; clear space if full.
3. Confirm the path is on a writable filesystem (not a read-only mount) and that no regular file occupies dirPath.
4. Shorten or sanitize dirPath if it is abnormally long, or move the workspace under a shallower root.

Example fix

// before
ensureDir('/opt/ecc/state');  // EACCES if /opt is root-owned

// after — write under a user-owned path and surface mkdir errors with their code
function ensureDirSafe(dirPath) {
  try {
    fs.mkdirSync(dirPath, { recursive: true });
  } catch (err) {
    if (err.code !== 'EEXIST') {
      throw new Error(`Failed to create directory '${dirPath}' (${err.code}): ${err.message}`);
    }
  }
  return dirPath;
}
ensureDirSafe(path.join(os.homedir(), '.local', 'ecc', 'state'));

// Pre-flight: parent must exist and be writable; path must not be a regular file.
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
function canCreateDir(dirPath) {
  const parent = path.dirname(path.resolve(dirPath));
  try {
    fs.accessSync(parent, fs.constants.W_OK);
  } catch {
    return false;
  }
  try {
    const st = fs.statSync(dirPath);
    return st.isDirectory(); // exists as dir is fine; exists as file is not
  } catch { return true; } // nothing there yet
}
if (!canCreateDir(target)) throw new Error(`Cannot create ${target}: parent not writable or target is a file.`);

try {
  ensureDir(target);
} catch (err) {
  if (/Failed to create directory/.test(err.message)) {
    // Retry once on a user-owned fallback, or surface a friendlier message.
    const fallback = path.join(os.homedir(), '.cache', 'ecc');
    if (fallback !== target) { ensureDir(fallback); return fallback; }
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ensureDir on a path under a directory the process has no write permission to (EACCES). Target on a read-only mount (EROFS). Disk full or inode quota exhausted (ENOSPC). Path longer than PATH_MAX (ENAMETOOLONG). A file (not directory) already exists at dirPath (ENOTDIR/EEXIST-on-file — though EEXIST is swallowed, ENOTDIR on a parent is not).

Common situations: Running the CLI as a different user than owns the project dir. Docker/container with a read-only volume mount. CI runner out of disk. Symlink loop in the target path. NFS/Homebrew prefixes with restricted permissions on macOS.

Related errors

• Failed to read ${label}: ${error.message}
• ${label} destination is not writable by the current user: ${
• Failed to save package manager preference: ${err.message}
• Failed to save package manager config to ${configPath}: ${er
• Standard input remained unavailable after ${maxRetryWaitMs}m

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/417e227976a731ad. Report an issue: GitHub.