{"record":{"id":"6dfa55b73e94d2da","repo":"Zackriya-Solutions/meetily","slug":"failed-to-wait-for-ffmpeg-process","errorCode":null,"errorMessage":"Failed to wait for ffmpeg process: {}","messagePattern":"Failed to wait for ffmpeg process: (.+?)","errorType":"exception","errorClass":null,"httpStatus":null,"severity":"error","filePath":"frontend/src-tauri/src/audio/decoder.rs","lineNumber":352,"sourceCode":"\n    // Hide console window on Windows\n    #[cfg(target_os = \"windows\")]\n    {\n        use std::os::windows::process::CommandExt;\n        const CREATE_NO_WINDOW: u32 = 0x08000000;\n        command.creation_flags(CREATE_NO_WINDOW);\n    }\n\n    debug!(\"FFmpeg conversion command: {:?}\", command);\n\n    #[allow(clippy::zombie_processes)]\n    let child = command\n        .spawn()\n        .map_err(|e| anyhow!(\"Failed to spawn ffmpeg process: {}\", e))?;\n\n    let output = child\n        .wait_with_output()\n        .map_err(|e| anyhow!(\"Failed to wait for ffmpeg process: {}\", e))?;\n\n    let stderr_text = String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stderr);\n    debug!(\"FFmpeg stderr: {}\", stderr_text);\n\n    if !output.status.success() {\n        error!(\n            \"FFmpeg conversion failed (exit code: {}): {}\",\n            output.status, stderr_text\n        );\n        return Err(anyhow!(\n            \"FFmpeg conversion failed with exit code: {}. \\\n             The file may be corrupted or in an unsupported format.\",\n            output.status\n        ));\n    }\n\n    // Verify output file exists and has content\n    let output_meta = std::fs::metadata(&temp_path)","sourceCodeStart":334,"sourceCodeEnd":370,"githubUrl":"https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meetily/blob/0281737d87d26352fb0adc78c8c0975f691b23d1/frontend/src-tauri/src/audio/decoder.rs#L334-L370","documentation":"The ffmpeg child was spawned successfully, but wait_with_output() failed while reaping the process or reading its piped stdout/stderr. This is a rare OS-level condition rather than a media problem: the process was killed externally (OOM killer, task manager), or the pipe was torn down before it could be drained. Usually transient; a single retry typically succeeds.","triggerScenarios":"System OOM killer terminates ffmpeg mid-conversion of a large file; user or a process-cleanup utility kills the child; broken pipe when stdout/stderr buffers are closed prematurely.","commonSituations":"Memory-constrained machines converting long recordings; force-killing the app mid-import leaves a child in an unreapable state on some platforms.","solutions":["Retry the import once — wait failures are usually transient.","Check system logs (dmesg / Event Viewer) for OOM kills if ffmpeg dies on large files; free memory or avoid parallel imports.","If it persists, run the equivalent ffmpeg command manually (`ffmpeg -i <input> -vn -acodec pcm_s16le out.wav`) to see whether the process itself is unstable on this machine."],"exampleFix":null,"handlingStrategy":"retry","validationCode":null,"typeGuard":null,"tryCatchPattern":"// caller: wait failures are typically transient — retry once\nlet result = convert_to_wav_with_ffmpeg(&path, None);\nif let Err(e) = &result {\n    if e.to_string().contains(\"Failed to wait for ffmpeg\") {\n        result = convert_to_wav_with_ffmpeg(&path, None);\n    }\n}","preventionTips":["Avoid launching many parallel ffmpeg conversions on low-memory machines.","Watch for OOM kills in system logs when converting large files."],"tags":["ffmpeg","process","transient","oom"],"backgroundTag":"child-process-wait-failed","analyzedSha":"0281737d87d26352fb0adc78c8c0975f691b23d1","analyzedAt":"2026-08-16T20:57:52.567Z","schemaVersion":2},"datasetVersion":"2026-08-16T23:17:17.608Z"}