hashicorp/packer · error

unsupported scope: %s

Error message

unsupported scope: %s

What it means

Inside Generate, g.config.Scope is mapped to a source.Scope; only 'all-layers', '' and 'squashed' are recognized. Any other value returns `unsupported scope: %s`. Normally unreachable because ParseScopeFromArgs and NewGenerator normalize scope, but code that populates Config directly can insert invalid values.

Source

Thrown at internal/sbom/generator_syft.go:44

	getSourceCfg := syft.DefaultGetSourceConfig()
	if len(g.config.Exclude) > 0 {
		getSourceCfg = getSourceCfg.WithExcludeConfig(source.ExcludeConfig{Paths: g.config.Exclude})
	}

	src, err := syft.GetSource(ctx, sourceInput, getSourceCfg)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get source: %w", err)
	}
	defer func() { _ = src.Close() }()

	var scope source.Scope
	switch g.config.Scope {
	case ScopeAllLayers:
		scope = source.AllLayersScope
	case "", ScopeSquashed:
		scope = source.SquashedScope
	default:
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unsupported scope: %s", g.config.Scope)
	}

	sbomCfg := syft.DefaultCreateSBOMConfig().
		WithSearchConfig(cataloging.SearchConfig{
			Scope: scope,
		}).
		WithParallelism(g.config.Parallelism)

	sbomResult, err := syft.CreateSBOM(ctx, src, sbomCfg)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create SBOM: %w", err)
	}

	return g.encodeToFormat(sbomResult)
}

// encodeToFormat encodes the SBOM to the requested format.
func (g *Generator) encodeToFormat(sbomData *sbom.SBOM) ([]byte, error) {

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

1. Set Scope only via ParseScopeFromArgs, or leave it empty so NewGenerator defaults to squashed
2. Accept only "squashed" or "all-layers" in the HCL/template config surface and validate early
3. Update any stored config that holds a non-canonical scope string

Example fix

// before
gen := sbom.NewGenerator(sbom.Config{Scope: scopeFromUser}) // raw, unvalidated
// after
scope, err := sbom.ParseScopeFromArgs(scopeFromUser)
if err != nil { return err }
gen := sbom.NewGenerator(sbom.Config{Scope: scope})

scope, err := sbom.ParseScopeFromArgs(cfg.Scope)
if err != nil { return err }
cfg.Scope = scope
gen := sbom.NewGenerator(cfg)

func validScope(s string) bool { return s == "" || s == "squashed" || s == "all-layers" }

out, err := gen.Generate(ctx)
if err != nil {
    if strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "unsupported scope") { return fmt.Errorf("fix Scope in config: %w", err) }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing sbom.Config{Scope: "directory"} or another raw string and calling Generate without passing it through ParseScopeFromArgs/NewGenerator; config sources bypassing validation (HCL field set to an arbitrary value).

Common situations: Users setting scope via template fields with values like "all-layers:" or "squashed+uncompressed" copied from other tools; programmatic callers of the internal package skipping ParseScopeFromArgs.

Related errors

• unsupported format: %s
• unsupported scope: %s (supported: squashed, all-layers)
• failed to get source: %w
• failed to create SBOM: %w
• failed to create CycloneDX encoder: %w

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/packer@eb36e3c3e4 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0d292ec60466f6fd. Report an issue: GitHub.