hyperledger/fabric · error

error obtaining absolute path of the chaincode: %s

Error message

error obtaining absolute path of the chaincode: %s

What it means

When the parsed path has no scheme (treated as a local filesystem path), ValidatePath converts it to an absolute path with filepath.Abs. If that conversion fails (rare; e.g. working directory issues), this error wraps the cause.

Source

Thrown at core/chaincode/platforms/node/platform.go:59

}

// Name returns the name of this platform
func (p *Platform) Name() string {
	return pb.ChaincodeSpec_NODE.String()
}

// ValidatePath validates Go chaincodes
func (p *Platform) ValidatePath(rawPath string) error {
	path, err := url.Parse(rawPath)
	if err != nil || path == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid path: %s", err)
	}

	// Treat empty scheme as a local filesystem path
	if path.Scheme == "" {
		pathToCheck, err := filepath.Abs(rawPath)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error obtaining absolute path of the chaincode: %s", err)
		}

		exists, err := pathExists(pathToCheck)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error validating chaincode path: %s", err)
		}
		if !exists {
			return fmt.Errorf("path to chaincode does not exist: %s", rawPath)
		}
	}
	return nil
}

func (p *Platform) ValidateCodePackage(code []byte) error {
	// FAB-2122: Scan the provided tarball to ensure it only contains source-code under
	// the src folder.
	//
	// It should be noted that we cannot catch every threat with these techniques.  Therefore,

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Ensure the process has a valid, existing working directory before calling
2. Pass an already-absolute path so filepath.Abs needs no cwd resolution
3. Restart the process from a valid working directory

Example fix

// before
os.Chdir("/tmp/deleted-dir") // cwd removed
err := platform.ValidatePath("chaincode/node/mycc")
// after
err := platform.ValidatePath("/opt/chaincode/node/mycc") // absolute path

if _, err := os.Getwd(); err != nil { return errors.New("invalid cwd; pass absolute paths") }

if err := platform.ValidatePath(rawPath); err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error obtaining absolute path") {
    // retry with an absolute path
}

When it happens

Trigger: ValidatePath called with a scheme-less path while filepath.Abs fails — typically because os.Getwd fails, e.g. the current working directory was deleted or is inaccessible.

Common situations: Process started in a directory that was subsequently removed (common in containers/CI); running with a deleted cwd; extremely long paths exceeding system limits.

Related errors

• path to chaincode does not exist: %s
• failed to calculate relative path for %s
• invalid path: %s
• error validating chaincode path: %s
• error reading chaincode install package at %s

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ef9e2fa933179b41. Report an issue: GitHub.