ansible/ansible · error · UnarchiveError

ZIP info perm format incorrect, %s

Error message

ZIP info perm format incorrect, %s

What it means

When unarchive must shell out to 'unzip -Z (zipinfo)' to inspect permissions, it validates each entry's permission string against a 9-char rwx regex (ZIP_FILE_MODE_RE). If the listing line yields a perm field that is not 9 rwx-style characters, it raises this UnarchiveError naming the offending permstr.

Source

Thrown at lib/ansible/modules/unarchive.py:605

                elif permstr == 'rwx---':
                    permstr = 'rwxrwxrwx'
                else:
                    permstr = 'rw-rw-rw-'
                file_umask = umask
            elif len(permstr) == 7:
                if permstr == 'rwxa---':
                    permstr = 'rwxrwxrwx'
                else:
                    permstr = 'rw-rw-rw-'
                file_umask = umask
            elif 'bsd' in systemtype.lower():
                file_umask = umask
            else:
                file_umask = 0

            # Test string conformity
            if len(permstr) != 9 or not ZIP_FILE_MODE_RE.match(permstr):
                raise UnarchiveError('ZIP info perm format incorrect, %s' % permstr)

            # DEBUG
#            err += "%s%s %10d %s\n" % (ztype, permstr, size, path)

            b_dest = os.path.join(self.b_dest, to_bytes(path, errors='surrogate_or_strict'))
            try:
                st = os.lstat(b_dest)
            except Exception:
                change = True
                self.includes.append(path)
                err += 'Path %s is missing\n' % path
                diff += '>%s++++++.?? %s\n' % (ftype, path)
                continue

            # Compare file types
            if ftype == 'd' and not stat.S_ISDIR(st.st_mode):
                change = True
                self.includes.append(path)

View on GitHub (pinned to 9cf16a4aca)

Solutions

1. Run unzip -Z /path/archive.zip on the host and compare the permissions column to standard rwxrwxrwx format
2. Upgrade/downgrade unzip to the standard Info-ZIP release the parser expects
3. Set explicit permissions in the task (mode:) or use the Python zipfile path (keep unzip out) by ensuring python3-zipfile is usable
4. Recreate the zip with standard permissions (e.g. zip -X) to normalize the fields

Example fix

# before
- ansible.builtin.unarchive:
    src: /tmp/app.zip
    dest: /opt/app
    remote_src: true
# UnarchiveError: ZIP info perm format incorrect, rwxa---

# after: normalize archive on the build side
# zip -X -r app.zip app/   (drops extra attribute fields)
- ansible.builtin.unarchive:
    src: /tmp/app.zip
    dest: /opt/app
    remote_src: true
    mode: '0755'

import re
ZIP_FILE_MODE_RE = re.compile(r'^[rwxstT-]{9}$')

def permstr_ok(permstr):
    return len(permstr) == 9 and bool(ZIP_FILE_MODE_RE.match(permstr))

try:
    handler.canonicalize_permissions(permstr)
except UnarchiveError as e:
    module.fail_json(msg=str(e), hint='unzip -Z output unexpected; standardize unzip version or rebuild zip')

When it happens

Trigger: unzip -Z output on a non-GNU/BSD system whose locale or unzip build formats the permissions field differently; exotic zip entries with unusual attribute encodings; parsing drift after an unzip version change.

Common situations: BusyBox unzip variants; unzip 6.3+ with different column output; archives with entries created by Info-ZIP flags the parser does not expect.

Related errors

• Neither python zipfile nor unzip can read %s
• Unable to list files in the archive
• Cannot change ownership of %s to %s, as user %s
• Unable to read the contents of {path!r}.
• Unable to list files in the archive: %s

AI-assisted analysis of ansible/ansible@9cf16a4aca (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/85e58399db08522a. Report an issue: GitHub.