hashicorp/nomad · error

Invalid file mode %q: Must be a valid octal number: %w

Error message

Invalid file mode %q: Must be a valid octal number: %w

What it means

writeTemplate validation guard: the perms argument passed to the template-render subprocess is not a valid octal number, so strconv.ParseUint(perms, 8, 32) fails and the destination file mode cannot be established.

Source

Thrown at client/allocrunner/taskrunner/template/renderer/z_template_render.go:128

	flags.Parse(os.Args[3:])

	contents := new(bytes.Buffer)
	_, err := io.Copy(contents, os.Stdin)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed reading template contents: %w", err)
	}

	destPath, err = sandbox(sandboxPath, destPath) // platform-specific sandboxing
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to sandbox alloc dir %q: %w", sandboxPath, err)
	}

	// perms must parse into a valid file permission
	fileMode := os.FileMode(DefaultFilePerms)
	if perms != "" {
		fileModeInt, err := strconv.ParseUint(perms, 8, 32)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf(
				"Invalid file mode %q: Must be a valid octal number: %w", perms, err)

		}
		fileMode = fs.FileMode(fileModeInt)
		if fileMode.Perm() != fileMode {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf(
				"Invalid file mode %q: Must be a valid Unix permission: %w", perms, err)
		}
	}

	input := &renderer.RenderInput{
		Backup:         false,
		Contents:       contents.Bytes(),
		CreateDestDirs: true,
		Dry:            false,
		DryStream:      nil,
		Path:           destPath,
		Perms:          fileMode,

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Set a valid octal file permission in the template's perms field (e.g. 0644)
2. Check the client version supports the perms field syntax

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at client/allocrunner/taskrunner/template/renderer/z_template_render.go:128 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5bff47f1af5a28e1. Report an issue: GitHub.