What causes "Module installation was canceled by an interrupt signal." in hashicorp/terraform?

Re-run `terraform init`; module downloads are cached and will resume from partial progress.

Module installation was canceled by an interrupt signal.

Error message

Module installation was canceled by an interrupt signal.

What it means

Raised during module installation when the context was canceled (ctx.Err() == context.Canceled), i.e. the user sent an interrupt signal (Ctrl-C) or the calling context was canceled. It is a clean, intentional abort; partial downloads may remain and init is marked aborted.

Source

Thrown at internal/command/meta_config.go:323

			Parallelism: 1,
		})
		diags = diags.Append(ctxDiags)
		if diags.HasErrors() {
			return nil, diags
		}
		return ctx.Init(rootMod, terraform.InitOpts{
			Walker:       walker,
			SetVariables: variables,
		})
	}
	inst := initwd.NewModuleInstaller(m.modulesDir(), loader, m.registryClient(), initializer)

	_, moreDiags := inst.InstallModules(ctx, rootDir, testsDir, upgrade, installErrsOnly, hooks...)
	diags = diags.Append(moreDiags)

	if ctx.Err() == context.Canceled {
		m.showDiagnostics(diags)
		diags = diags.Append(fmt.Errorf("Module installation was canceled by an interrupt signal."))
		return true, diags
	}

	return false, diags
}

// initDirFromModule initializes the given directory (which should be
// pre-verified as empty by the caller) by copying the source code from the
// given module address.
//
// Internally this runs similar steps to installModules.
// The given hooks object will be notified of installation progress, which
// can then be relayed to the end-user. The uiModuleInstallHooks type in
// this package has a reasonable implementation for displaying notifications
// via a provided cli.Ui.
func (m *Meta) initDirFromModule(ctx context.Context, targetDir string, addr string, hooks initwd.ModuleInstallHook) (abort bool, diags tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
	ctx, span := tracer.Start(ctx, "initialize directory from module", trace.WithAttributes(
		attribute.String("source_addr", addr),

View on GitHub (pinned to c9def3e214)

Solutions

Re-run `terraform init`; module downloads are cached and will resume from partial progress.
Check connectivity to the module registry/Git source if downloads stall repeatedly.
Pre-download modules on a stable network or vendor them (//modules:... with vendoring).
Avoid interrupting mid-download unless necessary; let init complete or time out cleanly.

Example fix

// before
// terraform init  -> user presses Ctrl-C
// Module installation was canceled by an interrupt signal.

// after
terraform init   // resumes; cached modules speed re-run

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Check context before running, and handle cancellation gracefully
ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
defer cancel()
// run init in a way that tolerates cancellation; let it complete or time out

Try / catch

// Wrap init invocation; on interrupt, advise re-run
if err := runInit(ctx); err != nil {
    if errors.Is(err, context.Canceled) {
        // non-fatal: modules are partially cached
        return fmt.Errorf("init interrupted, please re-run terraform init")
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Let `terraform init` complete rather than interrupting mid-download.
Run init on a stable network to avoid stalls that tempt Ctrl-C.
Vendor modules or use a plugin/module cache to reduce download time.
Treat interrupt-during-init as recoverable: re-run init.

When it happens

Trigger: installModules: after inst.InstallModules returns, ctx.Err()==context.Canceled. Triggered by the user pressing Ctrl-C during `terraform init`, or a parent process (wrapper/CI) canceling the run while modules are downloading.

Common situations: User hits Ctrl-C because a module download is slow/hung; CI job times out and cancels; orchestration cancels init to switch strategy; flaky registry causing a long stall the user aborts.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@c9def3e214 (2026-08-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a1821dc26b9f74dc. Report an issue: GitHub.