apache/hadoop · error · IOException

Symlink path exceeds {} character limit

Error message

Symlink path exceeds {} character limit

What it means

Error "Symlink path exceeds {} character limit" thrown in apache/hadoop.

Source

Thrown at hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/NameNodeRpcServer.java:1575

    checkNNStartup();
    namesystem.setTimes(src, mtime, atime);
  }

  @Override // ClientProtocol
  public void createSymlink(String target, String link, FsPermission dirPerms,
      boolean createParent) throws IOException {
    checkNNStartup();
    namesystem.checkOperation(OperationCategory.WRITE);
    CacheEntry cacheEntry = getCacheEntry();
    if (cacheEntry != null && cacheEntry.isSuccess()) {
      return; // Return previous response
    }

    /* We enforce the MAX_PATH_LENGTH limit even though a symlink target
     * URI may refer to a non-HDFS file system. 
     */
    if (!checkPathLength(link)) {
      throw new IOException("Symlink path exceeds " + MAX_PATH_LENGTH +
                            " character limit");
                            
    }

    final UserGroupInformation ugi = getRemoteUser();

    boolean success = false;
    try {
      PermissionStatus perm = new PermissionStatus(ugi.getShortUserName(),
          null, dirPerms);
      namesystem.createSymlink(target, link, perm, createParent,
          cacheEntry != null);
      success = true;
    } finally {
      RetryCache.setState(cacheEntry, success);
    }
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 2add963021)

Solutions

1. Shorten the symlink target or raise dfs.namenode.fs-limits.max-symlink-length if longer links are required.

When it happens

Trigger: createSymlink is called with a target path longer than the configured symlink length limit.

Common situations: Creating symlinks to very long target paths via the HDFS API or WebHDFS.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/hadoop@2add963021 (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6da516af772ff83d. Report an issue: GitHub.