apache/seatunnel · error · RuntimeException

Failed to close error sink writer

Error message

Failed to close error sink writer

What it means

Thrown by DefaultErrorSinkWriter.closeWriterIfPossible when the wrapped error-sink writer's close() fails. The error sink writer is a secondary writer that receives rows rejected by row-level error handling; failure to close it usually means the underlying sink (e.g. a file or JDBC target) could not flush or release resources. The original writer reference is still cleared in the finally block, so a subsequent attempt cannot retry the close.

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped cause exception to find the real sink failure (disk, network, permissions).
2. Fix the underlying sink resource (free disk space, restore connectivity) and restart the job.
3. Verify the error-sink plugin is correctly configured and reachable before enabling ROUTE mode.
4. If transient, retry the job; buffered error records may be lost if the sink never flushed.

Example fix

// before: sink.close() fails due to unwritten buffered data on a full disk
// after: pre-check writable space / wrap close with cause logging
try {
    sinkWriter.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
    LOG.error("error sink close failed; cause:", e.getCause());
    throw e;
}

if (diskFree(errorSinkPath) < requiredBytes) { failFast("insufficient space for error sink"); }

try { errorHandler.close(); } catch (RuntimeException e) { log.error("error sink close failed", e.getCause()); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling close() or ensureInitialized() on DefaultErrorSinkWriter while the underlying sink writer's close() throws — e.g. disk full while flushing buffered records, network drop to the error-sink target, or a sink plugin that fails cleanup.

Common situations: Error-sink writing to a local file on a full disk; error-sink database connection lost mid-job; job shutdown racing with sink flush failures.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to write file", "Could not save figure", "Error saving remote file" — file write failed: causes and fixes across languages and libraries — this error's family across 38 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to close error sink writer
• CLOSE_CLIENT_FAILED
• CLOSE_CQL_SESSION_FAILED
• Close Hudi record writer failed.
• Closing httpClient failed.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/seatunnel@cf67b549a7 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/230c2b72e3662580. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at seatunnel-engine/seatunnel-engine-server/src/main/java/org/apache/seatunnel/engine/server/task/error/DefaultErrorSinkWriter.java:676

        }
        if (failure instanceof Error) {
            throw (Error) failure;
        }
        if (failure instanceof Exception) {
            throw (Exception) failure;
        }
        throw new RuntimeException(failure);
    }

    private void closeWriterIfPossible() {
        SinkWriter<SeaTunnelRow, ?, ?> sinkWriter = this.writer;
        if (sinkWriter == null) {
            return;
        }
        try {
            sinkWriter.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Failed to close error sink writer", e);
        } finally {
            this.writer = null;
        }
    }

    private void releaseErrorSinkClassLoaderIfNeeded() {
        if (classLoaderReleased) {
            return;
        }
        List<URL> jars = this.errorSinkPluginJars;
        if (jars == null || jars.isEmpty()) {
            classLoaderReleased = true;
            return;
        }
        try {
            classLoaderService.releaseClassLoader(jobId, jars);
        } catch (Throwable e) {
            if (e instanceof Error) {

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