What causes "can't get absolute path of '%s': %w" in crowdsecurity/crowdsec?

Run the process from an existing, accessible working directory.

can't get absolute path of '%s': %w

Error message

can't get absolute path of '%s': %w

What it means

installScenarioItem resolves the absolute path of a hub scenario by joining the hub root with the item's RemotePath. filepath.Abs only fails when the current working directory cannot be determined (or in rare syscall errors). The error wraps that failure while naming the path being resolved.

Source

Thrown at pkg/hubtest/scenario.go:14

package hubtest

import (
	"fmt"
	"os"
	"path/filepath"

	"github.com/crowdsecurity/crowdsec/pkg/cwhub"
)

func (t *HubTestItem) installScenarioItem(item *cwhub.Item) error {
	sourcePath, err := filepath.Abs(filepath.Join(t.HubPath, item.RemotePath))
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("can't get absolute path of '%s': %w", sourcePath, err)
	}

	sourceFilename := filepath.Base(sourcePath)

	// runtime/hub/scenarios/crowdsecurity/
	hubDirScenarioDest := filepath.Join(t.RuntimeHubPath, filepath.Dir(item.RemotePath))

	// runtime/parsers/scenarios/
	itemTypeDirDest := fmt.Sprintf("%s/scenarios/", t.RuntimePath)

	if err := createDirs([]string{hubDirScenarioDest, itemTypeDirDest}); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	// runtime/hub/scenarios/crowdsecurity/ssh-bf.yaml
	hubDirScenarioPath := filepath.Join(hubDirScenarioDest, sourceFilename)
	if err := Copy(sourcePath, hubDirScenarioPath); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to copy '%s' to '%s': %w", sourcePath, hubDirScenarioPath, err)

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

Run the process from an existing, accessible working directory.
In containers/scripts, ensure the cwd is not deleted before the test runs (cd to a valid dir first).
Inspect the wrapped error (%w) to confirm it is syscall.ENOENT on the cwd.

Example fix

// before
cd /tmp/workdir && rm -rf /tmp/workdir && ./crowdsec test run ...
// after
cd /tmp && ./crowdsec test run ...

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

if wd, err := os.Getwd(); err != nil || wd == "" {
	// resolve paths relative to an explicit root instead of relying on cwd
}

Try / catch

if _, err := os.Getwd(); err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("working directory unavailable: %w", err)
}

Prevention

Never delete the process's own working directory in scripts/CI.
Pass absolute hub paths so filepath.Abs is trivially safe.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling installScenario -> installScenarioItem when the OS cannot determine the process working directory (deleted cwd), so filepath.Abs returns an error.

Common situations: Running crowdsec/ci tests from a directory that has been removed or replaced (common in containers or when the test harness deletes its own cwd); very unusual on healthy systems.

Understand the failure class

Background: "open() failed", "failed to open file", "cannot create file" — what a file open error means and how to fix it — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0fc982a618cda349. Report an issue: GitHub.