What causes "failed to read existing lock file content: %w" in hashicorp/terraform?

Check errors.Is for context.Canceled vs an io/net reset to distinguish user action from network.

failed to read existing lock file content: %w

Error message

failed to read existing lock file content: %w

What it means

Raised in getLockInfo after GetObject for the lock file succeeded but io.ReadAll(getResponse.Content) failed while reading the lock file body. It is the lock-file analogue of error 303: the HTTP call worked, the body stream did not. The ETag is still captured (316 dereferences *getResponse.ETag) for caller use.

Source

Thrown at internal/backend/remote-state/oci/client.go:316

// getLockInfo retrieves and parses a lock file from an oci bucket.
func (c *RemoteClient) getLockInfo(ctx context.Context) (*statemgr.LockInfo, string, error) {
	// Attempt to retrieve the lock file from
	getRequest := objectstorage.GetObjectRequest{
		NamespaceName: common.String(c.namespace),
		ObjectName:    common.String(c.lockFilePath),
		BucketName:    common.String(c.bucketName),
		RequestMetadata: common.RequestMetadata{
			RetryPolicy: getDefaultRetryPolicy(),
		},
	}

	getResponse, err := c.objectStorageClient.GetObject(ctx, getRequest)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, "", fmt.Errorf("failed to get existing lock file: %w", err)
	}
	lockByteData, err := io.ReadAll(getResponse.Content)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, *getResponse.ETag, fmt.Errorf("failed to read existing lock file content: %w", err)
	}
	lockInfo := &statemgr.LockInfo{}
	if err := json.Unmarshal(lockByteData, lockInfo); err != nil {
		return lockInfo, "", fmt.Errorf("failed to unmarshal JSON data into LockInfo struct: %w", err)
	}
	return lockInfo, *getResponse.ETag, nil
}
func (c *RemoteClient) Unlock(id string) error {
	ctx := context.TODO()
	logger := logWithOperation("unlock-state-file").Named(c.lockFilePath)
	logger.Info("unlocking remote state")
	lockInfo, etag, err := c.getLockInfo(ctx)

	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Failed to retrieve lock information from OCI Object Storage: %w", err)
	}
	// Verify that the provided lock ID matches the lock ID of the retrieved lock file.
	if lockInfo.ID != id {

View on GitHub (pinned to c9def3e214)

Solutions

Check errors.Is for context.Canceled vs an io/net reset to distinguish user action from network.
Re-run Unlock/Lock; lock files are small and the retry usually succeeds.
If persistent, inspect the network path to object storage (proxy/NAT resetting connections).

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

if ctx.Err() != nil { return nil, "", ctx.Err() } // do not read body on a cancelled ctx

Type guard

if errors.Is(err, context.Canceled) || errors.Is(err, io.ErrUnexpectedEOF) { /* classify */ }

Try / catch

lockByteData, err := io.ReadAll(getResponse.Content)
if err != nil {
    return nil, *getResponse.ETag, fmt.Errorf("failed to read existing lock file content: %w", err)
}

Prevention

Keep connectivity stable for the (tiny) lock file read.
Retry transient resets.
Avoid cancelling the context during Unlock.

When it happens

Trigger: io.ReadAll on getResponse.Content (client.go:314) returns an error: connection reset mid-stream, io.ErrUnexpectedEOF, or context cancellation while draining the (typically tiny) lock file body.

Common situations: Network reset while reading the lock file; context cancelled during Unlock/Lock; proxy truncating a small response. Rare for such a small object but possible on an unstable link.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@c9def3e214 (2026-08-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3cf40f658fbd5e72. Report an issue: GitHub.