denoland/deno · error

Installation path is not a directory

Error message

Installation path is not a directory

What it means

Error "Installation path is not a directory" thrown in denoland/deno.

Source

Thrown at cli/tools/installer/global.rs:257

  flags: Arc<Flags>,
  uninstall_flags: UninstallFlags,
) -> Result<(), AnyError> {
  let uninstall_flags = match uninstall_flags.kind {
    UninstallKind::Global(flags) => flags,
    UninstallKind::Local(remove_flags) => {
      return crate::tools::pm::remove(flags, remove_flags).await;
    }
  };

  let cwd = resolve_cwd(flags.initial_cwd.as_deref())?;
  let installation_dir =
    get_installer_bin_dir(&cwd, uninstall_flags.root.as_deref())?;

  // ensure directory exists
  if let Ok(metadata) = fs::metadata(&installation_dir)
    && !metadata.is_dir()
  {
    return Err(anyhow!("Installation path is not a directory"));
  }

  for name in &uninstall_flags.packages {
    let file_path = installation_dir.join(name);

    let mut removed = remove_file_if_exists(&file_path)?;

    if cfg!(windows) {
      removed |= remove_file_if_exists(&file_path.with_extension("cmd"))?;
      removed |= remove_file_if_exists(&file_path.with_extension("exe"))?;
    }

    if !removed {
      return Err(anyhow!("No installation found for {}", name));
    }

    // There might be some extra files to delete
    // Note: tsconfig.json is legacy. We renamed it to deno.json in January 2023.

View on GitHub (pinned to 89f33cbef2)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cli/tools/installer/global.rs:257 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of denoland/deno@89f33cbef2 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d377a32996826ca9. Report an issue: GitHub.