apache/maven · warning

Unable to read {}. The --resume / -r feature will not work.

Error message

Unable to read {}. The --resume / -r feature will not work.

What it means

loadResumptionFile found root-module target/resume.properties but properties.load(reader) threw IOException: the file is unreadable, truncated, or otherwise corrupt. Maven falls back to empty properties, so --resume / -r silently behaves like a full build.

Source

Thrown at impl/maven-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/execution/DefaultBuildResumptionDataRepository.java:103

        try {
            Files.deleteIfExists(resumeProperties);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            LOGGER.warn("Could not delete {} file. ", RESUME_PROPERTIES_FILENAME, e);
        }
    }

    private Properties loadResumptionFile(Path rootBuildDirectory) {
        Properties properties = new Properties();
        Path path = rootBuildDirectory.resolve(RESUME_PROPERTIES_FILENAME);
        if (!Files.exists(path)) {
            LOGGER.warn("The {} file does not exist. The --resume / -r feature will not work.", path);
            return properties;
        }

        try (Reader reader = Files.newBufferedReader(path)) {
            properties.load(reader);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            LOGGER.warn("Unable to read {}. The --resume / -r feature will not work.", path);
        }

        return properties;
    }

    // This method is made package-private for testing purposes
    void applyResumptionProperties(MavenExecutionRequest request, Properties properties) {
        String str1 = request.getResumeFrom();
        if (properties.containsKey(REMAINING_PROJECTS) && !(str1 != null && !str1.isEmpty())) {
            String propertyValue = properties.getProperty(REMAINING_PROJECTS);
            Stream.of(propertyValue.split(PROPERTY_DELIMITER))
                    .filter(str -> !str.isEmpty())
                    .forEach(request.getProjectActivation()::activateOptionalProjectNonRecursive);
            LOGGER.info("Resuming from {} due to the --resume / -r feature.", propertyValue);
        }
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to e4093d4e12)

Solutions

1. Delete root-module target/resume.properties, run one full build to let it fail and regenerate the file, then resume with mvn -r
2. Check read permissions on target/resume.properties and the enclosing directory
3. If it recurs frequently, capture the file right after the failure and report it - repeated truncation suggests persistence is being interrupted

// sanity-check the resume file parses before relying on -r
Path resume = Paths.get(rootProject.getBuild().getDirectory(), "resume.properties");
if (Files.exists(resume)) {
    try (Reader r = Files.newBufferedReader(resume)) {
        Properties p = new Properties();
        p.load(r);
        if (p.getProperty("remainingProjects") == null) {
            Files.deleteIfExists(resume); // regenerate on next failure
        }
    } catch (IOException e) {
        Files.deleteIfExists(resume);
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: A build process killed while persisting resume.properties leaves a truncated file; the file exists but the build user lacks read permission; disk-level I/O errors while reading the target directory.

Common situations: CI agents forcibly terminated (OOMKilled, timeout kill) mid-write; workspace permission changes between jobs; exotic encodings of project paths stored in the properties file.

Related errors

• Could not create resume.properties file.
• The {} file does not exist. The --resume / -r feature will n
• Unable to prompt
• Error copying POM to the local repository.
• The super POM {resource} is damaged, please verify the integ

AI-assisted analysis of apache/maven@e4093d4e12 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c205c4218f6d0927. Report an issue: GitHub.