go-playground/validator · error

*PathError from os.Stat

Error message

*PathError from os.Stat

What it means

Panics inside the dir_path validator when os.Stat returns an error that is not one of the recognized syscall cases (e.g. not EINVAL for invalid characters and not a benign not-exist case). The code documents that os.Stat errors are *PathError values; hitting the default switch branch means something unexpectedly serious went wrong stat-ing the path (such as a path longer than the filesystem limit or an exotic I/O fault), so it panics with the raw error rather than silently passing or failing the validation.

Source

Thrown at baked_in.go:2986

				if t.Err == syscall.EINVAL {
					// It's definitely an invalid character in the path.
					return false
				}
				// It could be a permission error, a does-not-exist error, etc.
				// Out-of-scope for this validation, though.
				// Lastly, we make sure it is a directory.
				if strings.HasSuffix(field.String(), string(os.PathSeparator)) {
					return true
				} else {
					return false
				}
			default:
				// Something went *seriously* wrong.
				/*
					Per https://pkg.go.dev/os#Stat:
						"If there is an error, it will be of type *PathError."
				*/
				panic(err)
			}
		}
		// We repeat the check here to make sure it is an explicit directory in case the above os.Stat didn't trigger an error.
		if strings.HasSuffix(field.String(), string(os.PathSeparator)) {
			return true
		} else {
			return false
		}
	}

	panic(fmt.Sprintf("Bad field type %s", field.Type()))
}

// isJSON is the validation function for validating if the current field's value is a valid json string.
func isJSON(fl FieldLevel) bool {
	field := fl.Field()

	switch field.Kind() {

View on GitHub (pinned to facf128d2e)

Solutions

1. Check the underlying *PathError to identify the real filesystem failure
2. Shorten the path if it exceeds the OS path-length limit
3. Ensure the process has the required permissions on parent directories
4. Wrap the validation call in a recover if untrusted paths must never crash the service

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at baked_in.go:2986 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of go-playground/validator@facf128d2e (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2cacf541ec914118. Report an issue: GitHub.