denoland/deno · error · NodeSystemError

ERR_FS_CP_EEXIST

ERR_FS_CP_EEXIST

Error message

Target already exists

What it means

ERR_FS_CP_EEXIST ('Target already exists') is raised by throwCpError for kind 'EEXIST': the destination exists and the options forbid overwriting it — i.e. force: false combined with errorOnExist: true (the native on-file/link ops receive opts.force and opts.errorOnExist). With defaults (force: true, errorOnExist: false) existing destinations are overwritten silently.

Source

Thrown at ext/node/polyfills/_fs/cp/cp.ts:84

      });
    case "DIR_TO_NON_DIR":
      throw new ERR_FS_CP_DIR_TO_NON_DIR({
        message: err.message,
        path: err.path,
        syscall: "cp",
        errno: EISDIR,
        code: "EISDIR",
      });
    case "NON_DIR_TO_DIR":
      throw new ERR_FS_CP_NON_DIR_TO_DIR({
        message: err.message,
        path: err.path,
        syscall: "cp",
        errno: ENOTDIR,
        code: "ENOTDIR",
      });
    case "EEXIST":
      throw new ERR_FS_CP_EEXIST({
        message: err.message,
        path: err.path,
        syscall: "cp",
        errno: EEXIST,
        code: "EEXIST",
      });
    case "EISDIR":
      throw new ERR_FS_EISDIR({
        message: err.message,
        path: err.path,
        syscall: "cp",
        errno: EISDIR,
        code: "EISDIR",
      });
    case "SOCKET":
      throw new ERR_FS_CP_SOCKET({
        message: err.message,
        path: err.path,

View on GitHub (pinned to 89f33cbef2)

Solutions

1. If overwriting is fine, drop errorOnExist or set force: true
2. If not overwriting is intended, catch the error and check err.code === 'ERR_FS_CP_EEXIST' (or EEXIST) to treat it as success
3. Pre-check with fs.existsSync(dest) / fsp.lstat to branch explicitly instead of relying on the throw

Example fix

// before
await fsp.cp(src, dest, { force: false, errorOnExist: true }); // throws when dest exists

// after
try {
  await fsp.cp(src, dest, { force: false, errorOnExist: true });
} catch (err) {
  if (err.code !== 'EEXIST' && err.code !== 'ERR_FS_CP_EEXIST') throw err;
  // dest already present — treat as done
}

if (await fsp.lstat(dest).catch(() => null)) {
  // dest exists: overwrite (default), or skip, or abort — decide explicitly
  if (!overwrite) return;
}

try {
  await fsp.cp(src, dest, { force: false, errorOnExist: true });
} catch (err) {
  if (err.code !== 'EEXIST' && err.code !== 'ERR_FS_CP_EEXIST') throw err;
  console.log('dest already exists — skipping');
}

When it happens

Trigger: await fsp.cp(src, dest, { force: false, errorOnExist: true }) when dest already exists; install/extract tools that intentionally refuse to clobber outputs.

Common situations: Idempotent deploy scripts that must not overwrite existing installs; cache-population code where EEXIST is used as 'already done'.

Related errors

• ERR_FS_CP_EINVAL
• ERR_FS_CP_DIR_TO_NON_DIR
• ERR_FS_CP_NON_DIR_TO_DIR
• A file exists at the destination: ${destStr}
• ERR_FS_EISDIR

AI-assisted analysis of denoland/deno@89f33cbef2 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4b9114d3985fa25a. Report an issue: GitHub.