hyperledger/fabric · error

error decoding raw bytes with proto.Buffer

Error message

error decoding raw bytes with proto.Buffer

What it means

DecodeRawBytes on the blkstorage buffer wrapper consumes a length-delimited field via protowire.ConsumeBytes; if the length prefix or remaining bytes are invalid (truncated record, negative length, malformed wire data) the parse error is wrapped as "error decoding raw bytes with proto.Buffer". It is the companion to DecodeVarint for reading nested protobuf fields of stored blocks.

Source

Thrown at common/ledger/blkstorage/protobuf_util.go:40

func newBuffer(b []byte) *buffer {
	return &buffer{b, 0}
}

// DecodeVarint wraps the actual method and updates the position
func (b *buffer) DecodeVarint() (uint64, error) {
	v, n := protowire.ConsumeVarint(b.buf[b.position:])
	if n < 0 {
		return 0, errors.Wrap(protowire.ParseError(n), "error decoding varint with proto.Buffer")
	}
	b.position += n
	return v, nil
}

// DecodeRawBytes wraps the actual method and updates the position
func (b *buffer) DecodeRawBytes(alloc bool) ([]byte, error) {
	v, n := protowire.ConsumeBytes(b.buf[b.position:])
	if n < 0 {
		return nil, errors.Wrap(protowire.ParseError(n), "error decoding raw bytes with proto.Buffer")
	}
	b.position += n
	if alloc {
		v = append([]byte(nil), v...)
	}
	return v, nil
}

// GetBytesConsumed returns the offset of the current position in the underlying []byte
func (b *buffer) GetBytesConsumed() int {
	return b.position
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Locate the corrupt record (block number/offset from the caller) and validate the block file; use the ledger's rollback-to-genesis or snapshot restore to recover.
2. Re-sync the ledger from other peers or the orderer after resetting the affected channel's ledger data.
3. If generating bytes programmatically, ensure you emit a complete length-delimited protobuf field before decoding.

if len(buf) == 0 {
    return errors.New("empty block bytes")
}
if _, n := protowire.ConsumeBytes(buf); n < 0 {
    return fmt.Errorf("length-delimited field invalid: %v", protowire.ParseError(n))
}

raw, err := b.DecodeRawBytes(true)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("failed reading nested field at offset %d: %w", b.position, err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: extractHeader, extractData, extractMetadata, or TestBuffer reading bytes where a length-delimited field's length exceeds the remaining buffer — i.e. truncated or corrupted block records, wrong offset into the file, or bytes not produced by the protobuf encoder.

Common situations: Block file truncated by crash/power loss mid-write, ledger copied while the peer was running, disk corruption, restoring mismatched blockfile/integrity-check files, or passing arbitrary (non-protobuf) byte slices to the helpers.

Related errors

• error decoding varint with proto.Buffer
• error unmarshalling last persisted commit hash
• error decoding the block number
• error decoding the data hash
• error decoding the previous hash

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ea689b9d05e0b507. Report an issue: GitHub.