What causes "failed to generate event trigger SDL for %s" in bytebase/bytebase?

Re-run the database definition export

failed to generate event trigger SDL for %s

Error message

failed to generate event trigger SDL for %s

What it means

This error wraps failures from writeEventTrigger while generating CREATE EVENT TRIGGER statements into event_triggers.sql during multi-file SDL export. As with sibling writers, the sink is a strings.Builder so the write cannot fail in current code; the wrap is defensive. The message identifies the event trigger whose SDL generation failed.

Source

Thrown at backend/plugin/schema/pg/get_database_definition.go:4410

				Name:    fmt.Sprintf("schemas/%s/sequences.sql", schemaName),
				Content: buf.String(),
			})
		}
	}

	// Generate event_triggers.sql file if there are any event triggers
	if len(metadata.EventTriggers) > 0 {
		var buf strings.Builder
		for i, eventTrigger := range metadata.EventTriggers {
			if eventTrigger.SkipDump {
				continue
			}
			if i > 0 {
				buf.WriteString("\n")
			}

			if err := writeEventTrigger(&buf, eventTrigger); err != nil {
				return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to generate event trigger SDL for %s", eventTrigger.Name)
			}
		}

		if buf.Len() > 0 {
			files = append(files, schema.File{
				Name:    "event_triggers.sql",
				Content: buf.String(),
			})
		}
	}

	return &schema.MultiFileSchemaResult{Files: files}, nil
}

func getMultiFileSchemaSDL(schemaName string, schemaMetadata *storepb.SchemaMetadata) (string, error) {
	var buf strings.Builder

	if schemaName != "public" {

View on GitHub (pinned to 1870550677)

Solutions

Re-run the database definition export
Check disk space/permissions if SDL output targets disk
Unwrap the error for the underlying cause
Audit recent changes to writeEventTrigger if seen after an upgrade

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

files, err := GetMultiFileDatabaseDefinition(ctx, db, meta)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to generate event trigger SDL") {
        return fmt.Errorf("SDL event trigger generation failed, retry: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Buffer SDL output in memory before persisting
Monitor disk space and permissions
Retry transient writer failures
Review the wrapped underlying error

When it happens

Trigger: GetMultiFileDatabaseDefinition iterates database-level event triggers and writeEventTrigger returns a non-nil error for one of them.

Common situations: Not reachable under normal in-memory generation; would only occur if the writer is redirected to failing I/O or changed by a refactor.

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

AI-assisted analysis of bytebase/bytebase@1870550677 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3b415cb3d28b92ee. Report an issue: GitHub.