crowdsecurity/crowdsec · error

while globbing acquis_dir: %w

Error message

while globbing acquis_dir: %w

What it means

CollectAcquisitionFiles builds the list of acquisition YAML files. When an acquisition_dir is configured it globs '<dir>/*.yaml'; filepath.Glob only fails on malformed patterns (ErrBadPattern), so this wraps a pattern-syntax error, not a missing directory. It is raised during LoadCrowdsec at agent startup.

Source

Thrown at pkg/csconfig/crowdsec_service.go:74

		_, err := os.Stat(c.AcquisitionFilePath)

		switch {
		case errors.Is(err, fs.ErrNotExist):
			log.Debugf("acquisition_path: %s does not exist, skipping", c.AcquisitionFilePath)
		case err != nil:
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("while checking acquisition_path: %w", err)
		default:
			ret = append(ret, c.AcquisitionFilePath)
		}
	}

	// XXX: TODO: set default AcquisitionDirPath

	if c.AcquisitionDirPath != "" {
		dirFiles, err := filepath.Glob(c.AcquisitionDirPath + "/*.yaml")
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("while globbing acquis_dir: %w", err)
		}

		ret = append(ret, dirFiles...)

		dirFiles, err = filepath.Glob(c.AcquisitionDirPath + "/*.yml")
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("while globbing acquis_dir: %w", err)
		}

		ret = append(ret, dirFiles...)
	}

	if c.AcquisitionDirPath == "" && c.AcquisitionFilePath == "" {
		return nil, ErrNoAcquisitionDefined
	}

	// files in 'ret' are already absolute

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

1. Check acquisition_dir in your config for unbalanced glob brackets ('[' without a matching ']') and escape or remove them
2. Use filepath.Escape or rename the directory so it contains no glob metacharacters
3. If the directory really has brackets in its name, escape them: acquisition_dir: '/etc/crowdsec/acquis\[.dir'

Example fix

// before
acquisition_dir: /etc/crowdsec/acquis[.dir
// after
acquisition_dir: /etc/crowdsec/acquis\.dir

for _, ch := range dirPath { if ch == '[' || ch == ']' { return fmt.Errorf("acquisition_dir %q contains glob metacharacters", dirPath) } }

files, err := cfg.CollectAcquisitionFiles(); if err != nil { log.Fatalf("acquisition collection failed: %v", err) }

When it happens

Trigger: crowdsec config contains acquisition_dir containing glob metacharacters that form an invalid pattern, e.g. an unclosed '[' like '/etc/crowdsec/acquis[.dir' — only the '*.yaml' call (first glob) hits this line.

Common situations: Users paste a directory path containing stray '[' or ']' (brackets interpreted as character classes), or templating/config tooling injects unbalanced brackets into acquisition_dir.

Related errors

• no configuration paths provided
• compilation of '%s' context value failed: %w
• while parsing '%s': %w
• failed to compile profiles: %w
• failed to create PAPI client: %w

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8a6fee7765494356. Report an issue: GitHub.