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).

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.

Appendix: 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)