hashicorp/packer · error

could not get binary for %s version %s. Is the file present

Error message

could not get binary for %s version %s. Is the file present on the release and correctly named ? %s

What it means

Plugin installation error from InstallLatest: the plugin's zip binary for the selected version could not be fetched from the release — the asset is missing or misnamed. Installation falls back to other getters before failing.

Source

Thrown at packer/plugin-getter/plugins.go:811

								log.Printf("[INFO] %s v%s plugin is already correctly installed in %q", pr.Identifier, version, outputFileName)
								return nil, nil // success
							}
						}
					}

					// start fetching binary
					remoteZipFile, err := getter.Get("zip", GetOptions{
						PluginRequirement:         pr,
						BinaryInstallationOptions: opts.BinaryInstallationOptions,
						version:                   version,
						expectedZipFilename:       expectedZipFilename,
					})
					if err != nil {
						if errors.Is(err, HTTPFailure) {
							return nil, err
						}
						errs = multierror.Append(errs,
							fmt.Errorf("could not get binary for %s version %s. Is the file present on the release and correctly named ? %s",
								pr.Identifier, version, err))
						continue
					}
					// create temporary file that will receive a temporary binary.zip
					tmpFile, err := tmp.File("packer-plugin-*.zip")
					if err != nil {
						err = fmt.Errorf("could not create temporary file to download plugin: %w", err)
						errs = multierror.Append(errs, err)
						return nil, errs
					}
					defer func() {
						tmpFilePath := tmpFile.Name()
						tmpFile.Close()
						os.Remove(tmpFilePath)
					}()

					// write binary to tmp file
					_, err = io.Copy(tmpFile, remoteZipFile)

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

1. Verify the release contains a zip for your OS/arch (e.g. packer-plugin-x_v1.0.0_linux_amd64.zip)
2. Retry, or use a mirror that mirrors the full release assets

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packer/plugin-getter/plugins.go:811 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/1d6f3335cc89198c. Report an issue: GitHub.