hashicorp/packer · error

cannot determine if process is backgrounded in openbsd

Error message

cannot determine if process is backgrounded in openbsd

What it means

Platform stub for OpenBSD: gopsutil does not support background-process detection on OpenBSD, so checkProcess always returns this error unconditionally on that platform. It is a build-tag-guarded sentinel, not a runtime condition.

Source

Thrown at background_check_openbsd.go:11

// Copyright IBM Corp. 2024, 2025
// SPDX-License-Identifier: BUSL-1.1

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func checkProcess(currentPID int) (bool, error) {
	return false, fmt.Errorf("cannot determine if process is backgrounded in " +
		"openbsd")
}

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

  1. Run the tool on a supported platform (linux/darwin) where the real checkProcess is compiled in
  2. Skip or disable the background check feature on OpenBSD
Defensive patterns

Strategy: fallback

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at background_check_openbsd.go:11 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/packer@eb36e3c3e4 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/981963d643357635. Report an issue: GitHub.