ipfs/kubo · error

internal error listing %s

Error message

internal error listing %s

What it means

Internal-error wrapper in `ipfs ls`: an unexpected (non-ErrNotFound-style) failure occurred while listing the given path — typically the background listing goroutine failed to resolve or decode the UnixFS/IPLD node. The generic message deliberately hides the cause from the user; the real error is logged with log.Errorf, so daemon logs are the place to diagnose.

Source

Thrown at core/commands/ls.go:212

		defer cancel()

		for i, fpath := range paths {
			pth, err := cmdutils.PathOrCidPath(fpath)
			if err != nil {
				return err
			}

			results := make(chan iface.DirEntry)
			lsErr := make(chan error, 1)
			go func() {
				// Listing decodes blocks with whatever codec their CID names.
				// This goroutine is detached from the request, and a panic on it
				// would end the daemon rather than the command. Ls closes
				// results on its way out, so the reader below still terminates.
				defer func() {
					if rec := recover(); rec != nil {
						log.Errorf("recovered from panic listing %s: %v\n%s", pth, rec, debug.Stack())
						lsErr <- fmt.Errorf("internal error listing %s", pth)
					}
				}()
				lsErr <- api.Unixfs().Ls(lsCtx, pth, results,
					options.Unixfs.ResolveChildren(resolveSize || resolveType))
			}()

			processLink, dirDone = processDir()
			for link := range results {
				var ftype unixfs_pb.Data_DataType
				switch link.Type {
				case iface.TFile:
					ftype = unixfs.TFile
				case iface.TDirectory:
					ftype = unixfs.TDirectory
				case iface.TSymlink:
					ftype = unixfs.TSymlink
				}
				lsLink := LsLink{

View on GitHub (pinned to 329838acdf)

Solutions

1. Check daemon logs (ipfs log tail) for the 'recovered from panic listing' or the underlying error line
2. Retry if a block provider was temporarily unreachable
3. Use ipfs dag get or ipfs cat on the path to isolate whether the block resolves

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at core/commands/ls.go:212 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of ipfs/kubo@329838acdf (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/22a08b34acdf79ec. Report an issue: GitHub.