What causes "could not find a non dev version" in ipfs/kubo?

Verify the distribution name and fetch endpoint are correct (official dists publish stable releases).

could not find a non dev version

Error message

could not find a non dev version

What it means

LatestDistVersion iterates the available versions of a distribution (from DistVersions) and returns the first one that is not a -dev pre-release; if the scan ends without finding any non-dev version it returns this error. It means every version published for that distribution is a dev build (or the list was empty/unparseable).

Source

Thrown at repo/fsrepo/migrations/versions.go:36

// LatestDistVersion returns the latest version, of the specified distribution,
// that is available on the distribution site.
func LatestDistVersion(ctx context.Context, fetcher Fetcher, dist string, stableOnly bool) (string, error) {
	vs, err := DistVersions(ctx, fetcher, dist, false)
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}

	for i := len(vs) - 1; i >= 0; i-- {
		ver := vs[i]
		if stableOnly && strings.Contains(ver, "-rc") {
			continue
		}
		if strings.Contains(ver, "-dev") {
			continue
		}
		return ver, nil
	}
	return "", errors.New("could not find a non dev version")
}

// DistVersions returns all versions of the specified distribution, that are
// available on the distriburion site.  List is in ascending order, unless
// sortDesc is true.
func DistVersions(ctx context.Context, fetcher Fetcher, dist string, sortDesc bool) ([]string, error) {
	versionBytes, err := fetcher.Fetch(ctx, path.Join(dist, distVersions))
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	prefix := "v"
	var vers []semver.Version

	scan := bufio.NewScanner(bytes.NewReader(versionBytes))
	for scan.Scan() {
		ver, err := semver.Make(strings.TrimLeft(scan.Text(), prefix))
		if err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 329838acdf)

Solutions

Verify the distribution name and fetch endpoint are correct (official dists publish stable releases).
Use DistVersions to list what is actually available and pin a known stable version explicitly instead of LatestDistVersion.
If you intentionally want a dev build, install that version directly rather than via latest-version lookup.
Inspect the dist site's responses to confirm the version list is being served correctly.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: fallback

Validate before calling

vers, err := migrations.DistVersions(ctx, fetcher, dist, true)
if err != nil { return err }
hasStable := false
for _, v := range vers {
	if !strings.Contains(v, "-dev") { hasStable = true; break }
}
if !hasStable {
	return fmt.Errorf("dist %s has no stable releases; available: %v", dist, vers)
}

Try / catch

ver, err := migrations.LatestDistVersion(ctx, fetcher, dist)
if err != nil {
	if err.Error() == "could not find a non dev version" {
		// fall back to a pinned known-good version
		ver = fallbackVersion
	} else {
		return err
	}
}

Prevention

Pin explicit stable versions in scripts instead of resolving latest.
Validate dist names and endpoints before querying versions.
List DistVersions first and assert at least one non-dev version exists.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling LatestDistVersion for a dist name where all listed versions contain "-dev" — e.g. a typo'd or experimental dist name, a dist whose only published tags are dev builds, or a fetcher returning an empty/degenerate version list so the loop body never yields a stable version.

Common situations: Pointing ipfs-update at a custom/unofficial dist endpoint that only publishes -dev builds, asking for the latest version of a brand-new dist before its first stable release, or an intercepted/corrupted response yielding only malformed versions.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ipfs/kubo@329838acdf (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f523b28b0cb43c8b. Report an issue: GitHub.