hashicorp/packer · error

could not get %s checksum file for %s version %s. Is the fil

Error message

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

What it means

Plugin installation error from InstallLatest: the checksum file (SHA256/SHA1SUMS etc.) for the selected plugin version could not be downloaded from the release — wrong/missing filename on the release or a fetch failure for every checksummer.

Source

Thrown at packer/plugin-getter/plugins.go:722

			)

			log.Printf("[TRACE] fetching checksums file for the %q version of the %s plugin in %q...", version, pr.Identifier, outputFolder)

			var checksum *FileChecksum
			for _, checksummer := range opts.Checksummers {
				if checksum != nil {
					break
				}
				checksumFile, err := getter.Get(checksummer.Type, GetOptions{
					PluginRequirement:         pr,
					BinaryInstallationOptions: opts.BinaryInstallationOptions,
					version:                   version,
				})
				if err != nil {
					if errors.Is(err, HTTPFailure) {
						return nil, err
					}
					err := fmt.Errorf("could not get %s checksum file for %s version %s. Is the file present on the release and correctly named ? %w", checksummer.Type, pr.Identifier, version, err)
					errs = multierror.Append(errs, err)
					log.Printf("[TRACE] %s", err)
					continue
				}

				entries, err := ParseChecksumFileEntries(checksumFile)
				_ = checksumFile.Close()
				if err != nil {
					err := fmt.Errorf("could not parse %s checksumfile: %v. Make sure the checksum file contains a checksum and a binary filename per line", checksummer.Type, err)
					errs = multierror.Append(errs, err)
					log.Printf("[TRACE] %s", err)
					continue
				}

				for _, entry := range entries {
					if filepath.Ext(entry.Filename) == JSONExtension {
						continue
					}

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

1. Check the release page includes a correctly named checksum file (e.g. packer-plugin-x_v1.0.0_SHA256SUMS)
2. Retry — transient network failures are appended to the multierror result

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packer/plugin-getter/plugins.go:722 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/8276bb83a5a0fc78. Report an issue: GitHub.