linebender/druid · error

No path received for filename

Error message

No path received for filename

What it means

In druid-shell's GTK file dialog backend, when the chooser dialog is accepted (`ResponseType::Accept`) the code reads `dialog.filenames()`. If the user accepted but GTK returned no filenames, there is no path to return, so the function yields an anyhow error 'No path received for filename'.

Solutions

  1. Check the returned Result and show the file dialog again instead of unwrapping, treating this as a user cancellation
  2. Verify with a real file selected that the dialog works; if it reproduces on plain accept, update druid-shell/GTK (known platform quirks)
  3. Guard downstream code against empty results before using the chosen path

Example fix

// before
let path = file_dialog(...).unwrap();
// after
match file_dialog(...) {
    Ok(path) => use_path(path),
    Err(_) => { /* treat as cancelled, no-op */ }
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

let paths: Vec<PathBuf> = dialog.filenames();
if paths.len() == 1 { use_path(paths[0].clone()); }

Try / catch

match result { Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("No path received") => { /* treat as cancelled */ }, other => other }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: User clicks OK/Open/Save on a FileDialog while the chooser holds no selected file — e.g. pressing Enter or the accept button with an empty selection, or a GTK edge case where the dialog closes as accepted without a selection.

Common situations: Users pressing Enter on an empty file chooser; non-interactive/scripted GTK environments (CI, flatpak sandboxes) where dialog selection behaves unexpectedly; custom GTK dialogs returning Accept on close.

Understand the failure class

Background: EmptyResultError / "no results found": when an API or scraper succeeds but returns zero rows — this error's family across 9 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of linebender/druid@0f8b1195e4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e89925763b58071f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at druid-shell/src/backend/gtk/dialog.rs:90

            }
        }

        if let Some(dt) = &options.default_type {
            if !found_default_filter {
                tracing::warn!("The default type {:?} is not present in allowed types.", dt);
            }
        }
    }

    if let Some(default_name) = &options.default_name {
        dialog.set_current_name(default_name);
    }

    let result = dialog.run();

    let result = match result {
        ResponseType::Accept => match dialog.filenames() {
            filenames if filenames.is_empty() => Err(anyhow!("No path received for filename")),
            // If we receive more than one file, but `multi_selection` is false, return an error.
            filenames if filenames.len() > 1 && !options.multi_selection => {
                Err(anyhow!("More than one path received for single selection"))
            }
            // If we receive more than one file with a save action, return an error.
            filenames if filenames.len() > 1 && action == FileChooserAction::Save => {
                Err(anyhow!("More than one path received for save action"))
            }
            filenames => Ok(filenames.into_iter().map(|p| p.into_os_string()).collect()),
        },
        ResponseType::Cancel => Err(anyhow!("Dialog was deleted")),
        _ => {
            tracing::warn!("Unhandled dialog result: {:?}", result);
            Err(anyhow!("Unhandled dialog result"))
        }
    };

    // TODO properly handle errors into the Error type

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