hyperledger/fabric · error

error while reading bootstrappingSnapshotInfo file

Error message

error while reading bootstrappingSnapshotInfo file

What it means

loadBootstrappingSnapshotInfo wraps a non-ENOENT error from os.ReadFile of bootstrappingSnapshotInfoFile in the ledger's block storage dir. Not-exist is treated as 'not bootstrapped from snapshot' and returns nil; any other read error becomes this wrapped error, which newBlockfileMgr panics on.

Source

Thrown at common/ledger/blkstorage/blockfile_helper.go:179

	return strings.HasPrefix(name, blockfilePrefix)
}

func getFileInfoOrPanic(rootDir string, fileNum int) os.FileInfo {
	filePath := deriveBlockfilePath(rootDir, fileNum)
	fileInfo, err := os.Lstat(filePath)
	if err != nil {
		panic(errors.Wrapf(err, "error retrieving file info for file number %d", fileNum))
	}
	return fileInfo
}

func loadBootstrappingSnapshotInfo(rootDir string) (*BootstrappingSnapshotInfo, error) {
	bsiBytes, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(rootDir, bootstrappingSnapshotInfoFile))
	if os.IsNotExist(err) {
		return nil, nil
	}
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, "error while reading bootstrappingSnapshotInfo file")
	}
	bsi := &BootstrappingSnapshotInfo{}
	if err := proto.Unmarshal(bsiBytes, bsi); err != nil {
		return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, "error while unmarshalling bootstrappingSnapshotInfo")
	}
	return bsi, nil
}

func IsBootstrappedFromSnapshot(blockStorageDir, ledgerID string) (bool, error) {
	ledgerDir := filepath.Join(blockStorageDir, ChainsDir, ledgerID)
	_, err := os.Stat(filepath.Join(ledgerDir, bootstrappingSnapshotInfoFile))
	if os.IsNotExist(err) {
		return false, nil
	}
	if err != nil {
		return false, errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to read bootstrappingSnapshotInfo file under blockstore directory %s", ledgerDir)
	}
	return true, nil

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Fix read permissions on the ledger dir / bootstrappingSnapshotInfo file (chown/chmod to the peer user)
2. If the file is corrupted or the snapshot restore was partial, re-restore the ledger from a valid snapshot or reset the ledger
3. Check filesystem/mount health if the error is an I/O failure

Example fix

// before: copying snapshot as root leaves root-owned files
// after:
// sudo chown -R peer:peer /var/hyperledger/production/ledgersData/chains/<ledgerID>/

path := filepath.Join(rootDir, "bootstrappingSnapshotInfo")
if fi, err := os.Stat(path); err == nil && !fi.Mode().IsRegular() {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s is not a regular file", path)
}

func snapshotInfoReadable(rootDir string) bool {
    f, err := os.Open(filepath.Join(rootDir, "bootstrappingSnapshotInfo"))
    if err != nil { return false }
    f.Close()
    return true
}

bsi, err := loadBootstrappingSnapshotInfo(rootDir)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("ledger %s unusable, restore snapshot: %w", ledgerID, err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: os.ReadFile fails with a non-NotExist error (permission denied, I/O error, path is a directory) on the bootstrappingSnapshotInfo file during blockfileMgr startup.

Common situations: Peer user lacks read permission on a restored ledger dir; corrupted filesystem; the snapshot-info file was replaced with a directory or unreadable file during a partial snapshot restore.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to read file", EACCES, ENOENT and "could not read <path>" errors: when a program can't read a file from disk — this error's family across 49 libraries.

Related errors

• failed to read bootstrappingSnapshotInfo file under blocksto
• error while deleting the dir: %s
• error while creating the dir: %s, ensure peer has write acce
• error while creating temp dir [%s]
• error while creating final dir for snapshot:%s

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c7bcf62ec9609d1e. Report an issue: GitHub.