hyperledger/fabric · error

no source files found in '%s'

Error message

no source files found in '%s'

What it means

Thrown by WriteFolderToTarPackage when filepath.Walk completed without any file being added to the tar package (the `success` flag was never set). This means the source directory contained no files matching the include/exclude filters, so the resulting package would be empty.

Source

Thrown at core/chaincode/platforms/util/writer.go:101

			packagepath = path.Join("src", packagepath)
		}

		err = WriteFileToPackage(localpath, packagepath, tw)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("Error writing file to package: %s", err)
		}

		success = true
		return nil
	}

	if err := filepath.Walk(rootDirectory, walkFn); err != nil {
		logger.Infof("Error walking rootDirectory: %s", err)
		return err
	}

	if !success {
		return errors.Errorf("no source files found in '%s'", srcPath)
	}
	return nil
}

// WriteFileToPackage writes a file to a tar stream.
func WriteFileToPackage(localpath string, packagepath string, tw *tar.Writer) error {
	logger.Debug("Writing file to tarball:", packagepath)
	fd, err := os.Open(localpath)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("%s: %s", localpath, err)
	}
	defer fd.Close()

	fi, err := fd.Stat()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("%s: %s", localpath, err)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Verify srcPath points to the directory that actually contains chaincode source files
2. Check includeFileTypeMap/excludeFileTypeMap filters do not exclude every file extension
3. Ensure source files are not located inside directories listed in excludeDirs
4. List the directory contents (ls -laR) to confirm there are matching files

Example fix

// before: wrong path / overly strict filter
err := util.WriteFolderToTarPackage(tw, "/empty-or-wrong-dir", nil, map[string]bool{".go": true}, nil)
// after: correct path with appropriate filters
err := util.WriteFolderToTarPackage(tw, "/path/to/chaincode", []string{".git"}, nil, nil)

// verify the source folder contains at least one candidate file before packaging
hasFile := false
filepath.Walk(srcPath, func(p string, info os.FileInfo, err error) error {
    if err == nil && !info.IsDir() && !strings.HasPrefix(info.Name(), ".") {
        hasFile = true
    }
    return nil
})
if !hasFile {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s contains no files to package", srcPath)
}

When it happens

Trigger: srcPath points to an empty directory; every file's extension is excluded by excludeFileTypeMap or not in includeFileTypeMap (e.g. passing a non-nil includeFileTypeMap that matches no extensions); all files reside only in excluded directories (.git plus excludeDirs); the directory contains only hidden or metadata files that get skipped.

Common situations: Pointing the packager at the wrong path (parent directory instead of the chaincode folder); building a Node.js chaincode whose source is in a subfolder; overly restrictive includeFileTypeMap; chaincode repo where all code lives inside an excluded dir.

Related errors

• Error writing %s to tar: %s
• Error writing file to package: %s
• error writing package metadata to tar
• error writing package code bytes to tar
• failed to create tar for chaincode

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/253df1b2ef2f5c24. Report an issue: GitHub.