hasura/graphql-engine · error

creating new binary file: %w

Error message

creating new binary file: %w

What it means

After a successful download response, downloadAsset creates the destination file with os.OpenFile(O_CREATE|O_WRONLY|O_TRUNC, 0755) to write the new binary. Any open failure (permission denied, missing parent directory, path is a directory, read-only FS) is wrapped by this error.

Source

Thrown at cli/update/update.go:88

	var op errors.Op = "update.downloadAsset"

	res, err := http.Get(url)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.E(op, errors.KindNetwork, fmt.Errorf("downloading asset: %w", err))
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()

	if res.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		return nil, errors.E(op, errors.E("could not find the release asset"))
	}

	asset, err := os.OpenFile(
		filepath.Join(filePath, fileName),
		os.O_CREATE|os.O_WRONLY|os.O_TRUNC,
		0o755,
	)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.E(op, fmt.Errorf("creating new binary file: %w", err))
	}
	defer asset.Close()

	_, err = io.Copy(asset, res.Body)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.E(op, fmt.Errorf("saving downloaded file: %w", err))
	}

	return asset, nil
}

// HasUpdate tells us if there is a new stable or prerelease update available.
func HasUpdate(
	currentVersion *semver.Version,
	timeFile string,
) (bool, *semver.Version, bool, *semver.Version, error) {
	var op errors.Op = "update.HasUpdate"

View on GitHub (pinned to 724551b9ae)

Solutions

1. Check permissions on the install/config directory and fix ownership (chown to your user on the CLI dir); reinstall via a package manager if in a system location
2. Ensure the parent directory of the target path exists
3. Prefer user-local installs so updates never need elevated privileges

Example fix

# before
hasura update   # fails: creating new binary file: permission denied

# after
sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local/bin/hasura ~/.hasura
hasura update

if _, err := os.OpenFile(filepath.Join(filePath, ".write_test"), os.O_CREATE|os.O_WRONLY, 0o755); err != nil {
    // pre-flight: target dir not writable, fix permissions first
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ApplyUpdate() when the CLI install/config directory is not writable by the current user, the target path exists as a directory, the disk is full/read-only, or a root-owned file remains from earlier sudo usage.

Common situations: CLI installed to /usr/local/bin without write permission, a config dir owned by root after prior sudo runs, containers with read-only filesystems, or SELinux denying writes.

Related errors

• creating metadata file %s failed: %w
• creating target migrations directory: %w
• creating target seeds directory: %w
• failed writing current time to file: %w
• error generating codegen for action %s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of hasura/graphql-engine@724551b9ae (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/effd2702d945e924. Report an issue: GitHub.