hashicorp/packer · error

Error getting plugin, trying another getter: %w

Error message

Error getting plugin, trying another getter: %w

What it means

Plugin installation error from InstallLatest: writing the downloaded plugin zip to the temp file failed mid-copy (I/O error). The loop falls back to another getter; if all fail the combined errors are returned.

Source

Thrown at packer/plugin-getter/plugins.go:832

					}
					// 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)
					_ = remoteZipFile.Close()
					if err != nil {
						err := fmt.Errorf("Error getting plugin, trying another getter: %w", err)
						errs = multierror.Append(errs, err)
						continue
					}
					if _, err := tmpFile.Seek(0, 0); err != nil {
						err := fmt.Errorf("Error seeking beginning of temporary file for checksumming, continuing: %w", err)
						errs = multierror.Append(errs, err)
						continue
					}

					// verify that the checksum for the zip is what we expect.
					if err := checksum.Checksummer.Checksum(checksum.Expected, tmpFile); err != nil {
						err := fmt.Errorf("%w. Is the checksum file correct ? Is the binary file correct ?", err)
						errs = multierror.Append(errs, err)
						continue
					}
					zr, err := zip.OpenReader(tmpFile.Name())
					if err != nil {
						errs = multierror.Append(errs, fmt.Errorf("zip : %v", err))

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

1. Retry the install (packer init) — often transient disk/network I/O
2. Check disk space and stability of the download source

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packer/plugin-getter/plugins.go:832 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/c8eeb327d854bf75. Report an issue: GitHub.