ipfs/kubo · error

no sources specified

Error message

no sources specified

What it means

GetMigrationFetcher builds a list of fetchers (HTTP and/or IPFS) from the configured DownloadSources. If the sources list is empty after processing, no fetcher can be constructed, so it returns this error instead of a nil-capable Fetcher. It is a guard against running migrations with no place to download migration binaries from.

Source

Thrown at repo/fsrepo/migrations/migrations.go:202

		default:
			u, err := url.Parse(src)
			if err != nil {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("bad gateway address: %w", err)
			}
			switch u.Scheme {
			case "":
				u.Scheme = "https"
			case "https", "http":
			default:
				return nil, errors.New("bad gateway address: url scheme must be http or https")
			}
			fetchers = append(fetchers, NewHttpFetcher(distPath, u.String(), httpUserAgent, 0))
		}
	}

	switch len(fetchers) {
	case 0:
		return nil, errors.New("no sources specified")
	case 1:
		return fetchers[0], nil
	}

	// Wrap fetchers in a MultiFetcher to try them in order
	return NewMultiFetcher(fetchers...), nil
}

func migrationName(from, to int) string {
	return fmt.Sprintf("fs-repo-%d-to-%d", from, to)
}

// findMigrations returns a list of migrations, ordered from first to last
// migration to apply, and a map of locations of migration binaries of any
// migrations that were found.
//
// Deprecated: This function is used by legacy migration downloads and will be removed
// in a future version.

View on GitHub (pinned to 329838acdf)

Solutions

1. Set DownloadSources in the migrations config file (e.g. IPFS_PATH/migrations config) to a valid distribution URL
2. Export IPFS_DIST_PATH to a mirror serving ipfs-update distributions
3. Check ReadMigrationConfig output: the second return of GetMigrationFetcher's first argument comes from the config; ensure it is populated
4. If running fully offline, obtain migration binaries another way (PATH lookup) instead of calling GetMigrationFetcher

Example fix

// before
fetcher, err := GetMigrationFetcher(nil, GetDistPathEnv(CurrentIpfsDist), nil) // sources nil
// after
sources := cfg.DownloadSources
if len(sources) == 0 {
    sources = []string{"https://dist.ipfs.tech"}
}
fetcher, err := GetMigrationFetcher(sources, GetDistPathEnv(CurrentIpfsDist), nil)

sources := cfg.DownloadSources
if len(sources) == 0 {
    sources = []string{"https://dist.ipfs.tech"}
}
fetcher, err := migration.GetMigrationFetcher(sources, migration.GetDistPathEnv(migration.CurrentIpfsDist), nil)

if err != nil {
    if err.Error() == "no sources specified" {
        return fmt.Errorf("configure DownloadSources or set IPFS_DIST_PATH: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling GetMigrationFetcher with an empty DownloadSources slice, or with sources that all fail to produce a fetcher (e.g. all entries invalid/unsupported schemes), so the fetchers slice ends up empty.

Common situations: Fresh ipfs repos or CI environments where the migrations config file is missing or has no DownloadSources set; users who cleared IPFS_DIST_PATH or the migration config's download sources; tests constructing a fetcher with nil/empty source lists.

Related errors

• failed to download migrations: %s
• failed to get migration fetcher: %w
• cannot get migrations from unknown fetcher type
• nothing downloaded by ipfs fetcher
• no local swarm address for migration node

AI-assisted analysis of ipfs/kubo@329838acdf (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c60ce64fa114952a. Report an issue: GitHub.