benbjohnson/litestream · error

failed to read response: %w

Error message

failed to read response: %w

What it means

The connection to the daemon's control socket succeeded, but reading the HTTP response body failed via io.ReadAll. Since the body comes from the local Unix-socket HTTP server, this usually means the connection was cut mid-response — daemon crash, timeout cancellation, or a reset connection — rather than a client-side bug.

Source

Thrown at cmd/litestream/start.go:71

	req := litestream.StartRequest{
		Path:    dbPath,
		Timeout: *timeout,
	}
	reqBody, err := json.Marshal(req)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to marshal request: %w", err)
	}

	resp, err := client.Post("http://localhost/start", "application/json", bytes.NewReader(reqBody))
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to connect to control socket: %w", err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to read response: %w", err)
	}

	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		var errResp litestream.ErrorResponse
		if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &errResp); err == nil && errResp.Error != "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("start failed: %s", errResp.Error)
		}
		return fmt.Errorf("start failed: %s", string(body))
	}

	var result litestream.StartResponse
	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &result); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to parse response: %w", err)
	}

	confirmation := StartStopResult{
		Status: result.Status,
		DBPath: result.Path,

View on GitHub (pinned to 4ed7a308f6)

Solutions

1. Increase -timeout so the client doesn't abort mid-read of a slow /start response
2. Check daemon logs for a crash or panic around the time of the request
3. Retry the command; if the daemon is restarting, wait until it is healthy
4. Ensure the daemon and CLI versions match so response framing is compatible

// pre-check with a cheap request to the socket before the real one:
resp, err := client.Post("http://localhost/status", "application/json", nil)
_ = resp; _ = err // ensure daemon responds before long-running start

var netErr net.Error
if errors.As(err, &netErr) && netErr.Timeout() {
    // retry with a larger -timeout
}

When it happens

Trigger: `litestream start` receives a connection but the daemon closes the connection before the full response is written; the client's -timeout http.Client timeout fires mid-read (context/deadline exceeded); the daemon panics while handling /start and the socket is torn down.

Common situations: Daemon restarts under load while the CLI request is in flight; -timeout too small so the client aborts while waiting for a slow start operation; kernel/oom-kills the daemon during the request.

Related errors

• failed to connect to control socket: %w
• failed to connect to control socket: %w
• failed to connect to control socket: %w
• failed to read response: %w
• failed to read response: %w

AI-assisted analysis of benbjohnson/litestream@4ed7a308f6 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1a91b9361d4fafb4. Report an issue: GitHub.