gastownhall/beads · error

read dependency file: %w

Error message

read dependency file: %w

What it means

Wraps bufio.Scanner errors encountered while streaming the bulk dependency file in readBulkDepEdges. os.Open succeeded but a read failed mid-scan (I/O error, device disconnected, binary garbage causing scanner issues on huge lines). Thrown after the parse loop finishes if scanner.Err() is non-nil.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/dep.go:674

		dt := canonicalDependencyType(types.DependencyType(depType))
		typeErr := validateDependencyType(dt)
		if typeErr != nil {
			errs = append(errs, fmt.Sprintf("line %d: %v", lineNo, typeErr))
		}
		if from == "" || to == "" || typeErr != nil {
			continue
		}

		edges = append(edges, bulkDepEdge{
			Line:        lineNo,
			IssueID:     from,
			DependsOnID: to,
			Type:        dt,
			Defaulted:   defaulted,
		})
	}
	if err := scanner.Err(); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("read dependency file: %w", err)
	}
	if len(errs) > 0 {
		return nil, bulkDepValidationError(errs)
	}
	return edges, nil
}

func validateBulkDepEdges(ctx context.Context, edges []bulkDepEdge) ([]bulkDepEdge, error) {
	resolved := make([]bulkDepEdge, 0, len(edges))
	var errs []string

	for _, edge := range edges {
		current := edge
		// Write-intent: addBulkDependencies writes through current.Store (the
		// source issue's store), so a routed source must open writable (#4141);
		// the depends-on target below stays read-only (bd-6dnrw.32, GH#3231).
		fromID, fromStore, fromCleanup, err := resolveIDForMutation(ctx, store, edge.IssueID)
		if err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Check for unusually long lines in the file (awk 'length($0)>65536' deps.txt) and split them; the default scanner limit is 64KB per line.
2. Re-run the command — transient I/O errors (NFS, removable media) often clear on retry.
3. Verify the file is plain text, not binary or compressed (file deps.txt).
4. If lines are legitimately huge, pre-split the file into smaller chunk files and run one bulk add per chunk.

Example fix

// before (one enormous line, >64KB, fails with 'bufio.Scanner: token too long')
bd dep add bd-1 --file huge-deps.txt

// after: split into chunks under the scanner limit
split -l 1000 huge-deps.txt chunk-
for c in chunk-*; do bd dep add bd-1 --file "$c"; done

// ensure no line exceeds bufio.Scanner's 64KB default limit
awk 'length($0) > 65536 { print "line " NR " too long (" length($0) " chars)"; bad=1 } END { exit bad }' "$DEPS_FILE"

for attempt in 1 2 3; do
  bd dep add bd-1 --file deps.txt && break
  sleep $((attempt * 2))
done

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `bd dep add -f <file>` where the underlying file descriptor fails during scanning: hardware/disk I/O error, file truncated or removed mid-read (e.g. reading from /proc-like or FIFO), or lines exceeding bufio.Scanner's 64KB default token limit.

Common situations: A very long dependency line in the file exceeding the 64KB bufio.Scanner buffer; networked filesystem dropout; file replaced while a long-running bulk add is in progress.

Related errors

• open dependency file: %w
• error reading %s: %w
• no store is open for this workspace
• no absolute native user directory is available
• ExternalDoltConfig: set either Socket OR (Host, Port), not b

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e585d9a150c0eac0. Report an issue: GitHub.