hyperledger/fabric · error

chaincode install package must be provided

Error message

chaincode install package must be provided

What it means

CalculatePackageIDInput.Validate enforces that a packaged chaincode tarball (--package-file) was supplied before the calculatepackageid command does any work. The command computes a package ID from an install package file, so without the file path there is nothing to hash. This is a pure input-validation error raised before any file I/O.

Source

Thrown at internal/peer/lifecycle/chaincode/calculatepackageid.go:45

	Writer  io.Writer
}

// CalculatePackageIDInput holds the input parameters for calculating
// the package ID of a packaged chaincode
type CalculatePackageIDInput struct {
	PackageFile  string
	OutputFormat string
}

// CalculatePackageIDOutput holds the JSON output format
type CalculatePackageIDOutput struct {
	PackageID string `json:"package_id"`
}

// Validate checks that the required parameters are provided
func (i *CalculatePackageIDInput) Validate() error {
	if i.PackageFile == "" {
		return errors.New("chaincode install package must be provided")
	}

	return nil
}

// CalculatePackageIDCmd returns the cobra command for calculating
// the package ID for a packaged chaincode
func CalculatePackageIDCmd(p *PackageIDCalculator) *cobra.Command {
	calculatePackageIDCmd := &cobra.Command{
		Use:       "calculatepackageid [packageFile]",
		Short:     "Calculate the package ID for a chaincode.",
		Long:      "Calculate the package ID for a packaged chaincode.",
		ValidArgs: []string{"1"},
		RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
			if p == nil {
				p = &PackageIDCalculator{
					Reader: &persistence.FilesystemIO{},
					Writer: os.Stdout,

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Add --package-file pointing to the packaged chaincode tarball produced by `peer lifecycle chaincode package`, e.g. mycc_1.0.tgz.
2. In Go, set CalculatePackageIDInput.PackageFile to the full path of the .tgz before calling Validate().
3. Confirm the packaging step succeeded and the file exists at the given path before invoking calculatepackageid.

Example fix

// before
peer lifecycle chaincode calculatepackageid
// after
peer lifecycle chaincode calculatepackageid --package-file ./mycc_1.0.tgz

info := chaincode.CalculatePackageIDInput{}
if info.PackageFile == "" {
    return errors.New("pass --package-file pointing to the packaged .tgz")
}
if _, err := os.Stat(info.PackageFile); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("package file missing: %w", err)
}

if err := info.Validate(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "must be provided") {
        return flag.ErrHelp // print usage so the operator sees the required flag
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `peer lifecycle chaincode calculatepackageid` without the --package-file flag, or programmatically constructing CalculatePackageIDInput with PackageFile left as empty string and calling Validate().

Common situations: Copy-pasting a command example and dropping the --package-file flag; scripting where the packaged .tgz path variable is empty because a prior `package` step failed or the variable wasn't exported.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• fetch target required, oldest, newest, config, or a number
• filename cannot be empty
• The required parameter 'channelID' is empty. Rerun the comma
• The required parameter 'package-id' is empty. Rerun the comm
• chaincode install package must be provided

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3bb7d36c72bb29b5. Report an issue: GitHub.