ipfs/kubo · error

failed to get temp dir: %s

Error message

failed to get temp dir: %s

What it means

initTempNode fails with this when os.MkdirTemp("", "ipfs-temp") cannot create a temporary directory. The ephemeral node used to fetch migration artifacts cannot even get its repo directory, so the wrapped os error is reported.

Source

Thrown at repo/fsrepo/migrations/ipfsfetcher/ipfsfetcher.go:187

	f.fetched = append(f.fetched, fetchedPath)
}

func initTempNode(ctx context.Context, bootstrap []string, peers []peer.AddrInfo) (string, error) {
	identity, err := config.CreateIdentity(io.Discard, []options.KeyGenerateOption{
		options.Key.Type(options.Ed25519Key),
	})
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	cfg, err := config.InitWithIdentity(identity)
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}

	// create temporary ipfs directory
	dir, err := os.MkdirTemp("", "ipfs-temp")
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to get temp dir: %s", err)
	}

	// configure the temporary node
	cfg.Routing.Type = config.NewOptionalString("dhtclient")

	// Disable listening for inbound connections
	cfg.Addresses.Gateway = []string{}
	cfg.Addresses.API = []string{}
	cfg.Addresses.Swarm = []string{tempNodeTCPAddr}

	if len(bootstrap) != 0 {
		cfg.Bootstrap = bootstrap
	}

	if len(peers) != 0 {
		cfg.Peering.Peers = peers
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 329838acdf)

Solutions

1. Set TMPDIR to a writable path and retry
2. Check free disk space and permissions on the temp directory
3. Run with a filesystem-writable environment (e.g. writable emptyDir in k8s)

Example fix

// before
export TMPDIR=/nonexistent
ipfs migrate
// after
export TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
ipfs migrate

tmp := os.TempDir()
if st, err := os.Stat(tmp); err != nil || !st.IsDir() {
    return fmt.Errorf("TMPDIR %q is not a usable directory", tmp)
}
if err := os.MkdirTemp(tmp, "ipfs-temp-probe"); err != nil { return err } // probe writability

dir, err := initTempNode(ctx)
if err != nil && strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "failed to get temp dir") {
    os.Setenv("TMPDIR", "/var/tmp") // or another writable dir, then retry
}

When it happens

Trigger: TMPDIR pointing to a non-writable or nonexistent location; disk full; restrictive umask/permissions; running in a hardened container with read-only /tmp or no temp mounts.

Common situations: Docker/Kubernetes sandboxes with read-only /tmp; systemd services with PrivateTmp and misconfigured paths; CI runners with TMPDIR set to a cleaned directory.

Related errors

• abort failed: close: %w, remove: %v
• %s path (%q) does not exist: %w
• source field %s does not exist
• %q is not a file
• failed to initialize ephemeral node: %s

AI-assisted analysis of ipfs/kubo@329838acdf (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6f3a4df225513f6e. Report an issue: GitHub.