hashicorp/packer · error

could not parse checksum filename %s. Is it correctly format

Error message

could not parse checksum filename %s. Is it correctly formatted ? %s

What it means

Plugin installation error from InstallLatest: a checksum-file entry's filename is not in the expected packer-plugin-{name}_{version}_{os}_{arch} shape, so the OS/arch/protocol metadata cannot be extracted. The entry is skipped.

Source

Thrown at packer/plugin-getter/plugins.go:742

					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
					}
					if err := getter.Init(pr, &entry); err != nil {
						err := fmt.Errorf("could not parse checksum filename %s. Is it correctly formatted ? %s", entry.Filename, err)
						errs = multierror.Append(errs, err)
						log.Printf("[TRACE] %s", err)
						continue
					}

					metaOpts := GetOptions{
						PluginRequirement:         pr,
						BinaryInstallationOptions: opts.BinaryInstallationOptions,
						version:                   version,
					}
					if err := getter.Validate(metaOpts, version.String(), opts.BinaryInstallationOptions, &entry); err != nil {
						continue
					}

					log.Printf("[TRACE] About to get: %s", entry.Filename)

					cs, err := checksummer.ParseChecksum(strings.NewReader(entry.Checksum))
					if err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

1. Retry — other entries/getters are tried automatically
2. Verify the plugin release assets follow the standard naming convention

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packer/plugin-getter/plugins.go:742 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/82aa5c72cb8bdec1. Report an issue: GitHub.