failed to write the entire content of the file, expected %d,

Error message

failed to write the entire content of the file, expected %d, wrote %d

What it means

After creating the temp file, WriteFile writes the full data buffer and verifies that the number of bytes written equals len(data). If the write returns no error but fewer bytes than expected, this error is produced and then wrapped with 'error writing to temp file'.

Source

Thrown at core/chaincode/persistence/persistence.go:56

// FilesystemIO is the production implementation of the IOWriter interface
type FilesystemIO struct{}

// WriteFile writes a file to the filesystem; it does so atomically
// by first writing to a temp file and then renaming the file so that
// if the operation crashes midway we're not stuck with a bad package
func (f *FilesystemIO) WriteFile(path, name string, data []byte) error {
	if path == "" {
		return errors.New("empty path not allowed")
	}
	tmpFile, err := os.CreateTemp(path, ".ccpackage.")
	if err != nil {
		return errors.Wrapf(err, "error creating temp file in directory '%s'", path)
	}
	defer os.Remove(tmpFile.Name())

	if n, err := tmpFile.Write(data); err != nil || n != len(data) {
		if err == nil {
			err = errors.Errorf(
				"failed to write the entire content of the file, expected %d, wrote %d",
				len(data), n,
			)
		}
		return errors.Wrapf(err, "error writing to temp file '%s'", tmpFile.Name())
	}

	if err := tmpFile.Close(); err != nil {
		return errors.Wrapf(err, "error closing temp file '%s'", tmpFile.Name())
	}

	if err := os.Rename(tmpFile.Name(), filepath.Join(path, name)); err != nil {
		return errors.Wrapf(err, "error renaming temp file '%s'", tmpFile.Name())
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

Check disk space and quotas on the volume backing the chaincode install directory and free space if needed
Retry the chaincode install after resolving storage constraints
Log the wrapped error's message — it includes expected vs written byte counts — to size the problem

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

if err := ensureDiskSpace(path, uint64(len(data))+1<<20); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("insufficient space for package write: %w", err)
}

Try / catch

err := io.WriteFile(path, name, data)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to write the entire content") {
    time.Sleep(retryDelay)
    err = io.WriteFile(path, name, data) // retry once after freeing/checking space
}

Prevention

Set disk-space alerts well below the volume capacity
Account for package size limits before installing large chaincodes
Check storage quotas in containerized deployments (ephemeral-storage limits)

When it happens

Trigger: tmpFile.Write(data) completes with err == nil but n < len(data), typically due to hitting a disk quota or space limit mid-write on the filesystem holding the package directory.

Common situations: Disk quota exceeded on the peer's storage volume; very large chaincode package truncated by an underlying storage limit; rare kernel/filesystem short-write conditions.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/df6473b7b1652726. Report an issue: GitHub.