alibaba/arthas · critical · IllegalStateException

Failed to create directory within ${TEMP_DIR_ATTEMPTS} attem

Error message

Failed to create directory within ${TEMP_DIR_ATTEMPTS} attempts (tried ${baseName}0 to ${baseName}${TEMP_DIR_ATTEMPTS-1})

What it means

createTempDir tries up to TEMP_DIR_ATTEMPTS (10000) mkdir() calls under java.io.tmpdir and throws this IllegalStateException if every attempt collides or fails. Arthas uses this temp dir to extract arthas-bin.zip before loading arthas-core.jar, so failure blocks the whole attach.

Source

Thrown at arthas-agent-attach/src/main/java/com/taobao/arthas/agent/attach/ArthasAgent.java:146

        } catch (Throwable e) {
            errorMessage = e.getMessage();
            if (!slientInit) {
                throw new IllegalStateException(e);
            }
        }
    }

    private static File createTempDir() {
        File baseDir = new File(System.getProperty("java.io.tmpdir"));
        String baseName = "arthas-" + System.currentTimeMillis() + "-";

        for (int counter = 0; counter < TEMP_DIR_ATTEMPTS; counter++) {
            File tempDir = new File(baseDir, baseName + counter);
            if (tempDir.mkdir()) {
                return tempDir;
            }
        }
        throw new IllegalStateException("Failed to create directory within " + TEMP_DIR_ATTEMPTS + " attempts (tried "
                + baseName + "0 to " + baseName + (TEMP_DIR_ATTEMPTS - 1) + ')');
    }

    public String getErrorMessage() {
        return errorMessage;
    }

    public void setErrorMessage(String errorMessage) {
        this.errorMessage = errorMessage;
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 21cf2e9ba5)

Solutions

1. Ensure the java.io.tmpdir directory is writable and has free space/inodes.
2. Set -Djava.io.tmpdir=/path/to/writable/dir to a known-good location.
3. Relax SELinux/security-manager rules so the JVM can create directories under tmpdir.

Example fix

// before
java ... -jar arthas
// -> Failed to create directory within 10000 attempts

// after
java -Djava.io.tmpdir=/var/tmp/arthas -jar arthas

java.io.File tmp = new java.io.File(System.getProperty("java.io.tmpdir"));
if (!tmp.canWrite()) throw new IllegalStateException("tmpdir not writable: " + tmp);
java.io.File probe = new java.io.File(tmp, ".arthas_probe");
if (!probe.mkdir()) throw new IllegalStateException("cannot mkdir in tmpdir");
probe.delete();

When it happens

Trigger: java.io.tmpdir is not writable, full, or on a read-only mount; a security manager or SELinux denies mkdir; the temp partition is out of inodes/space.

Common situations: Container with a read-only /tmp; disk full; restrictive pod security policy; tmpdir mounted noexec/nosuid with permission issues.

Related errors

• File '{}' cannot be written to
• Directory '{}' could not be created
• can not find arthas-core.jar under arthasHome: ${arthasHome}
• File '{file}' cannot be written to
• Directory '{parent}' could not be created

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/arthas@21cf2e9ba5 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/81a3054ba11f191a. Report an issue: GitHub.