What causes "icupkg: unable to create tree directory \"%s\"\n" in nodejs/node?

Verify write permissions on the output directory: ls -ld and touch /test.

U_FILE_ACCESS_ERROR

U_FILE_ACCESS_ERROR

Error message

icupkg: unable to create tree directory \"%s\"\n

What it means

Thrown by makeFullFilenameAndDirs() when uprv_mkdir() fails with a U_FAILURE error code while trying to create intermediate tree directories for a package item's output path. The tool walks the filename's path components, temporarily truncating at each separator to mkdir each level.

Source

Thrown at deps/icu-small/source/tools/toolutil/package.cpp:297

}

static void
makeFullFilenameAndDirs(const char *path, const char *name,
                        char *filename, int32_t capacity) {
    char *sep;
    UErrorCode errorCode;

    makeFullFilename(path, name, filename, capacity);

    // make tree directories
    errorCode=U_ZERO_ERROR;
    sep=strchr(filename, 0)-strlen(name);
    while((sep=strchr(sep, U_FILE_SEP_CHAR))!=nullptr) {
        if(sep!=filename) {
            *sep=0;                 // truncate temporarily
            uprv_mkdir(filename, &errorCode);
            if(U_FAILURE(errorCode)) {
                fprintf(stderr, "icupkg: unable to create tree directory \"%s\"\n", filename);
                exit(U_FILE_ACCESS_ERROR);
            }
        }
        *sep++=U_FILE_SEP_CHAR; // restore file separator character
    }
}

static uint8_t *
readFile(const char *path, const char *name, int32_t &length, char &type) {
    char filename[1024];
    FILE *file;
    UErrorCode errorCode;
    int32_t fileLength, typeEnum;

    makeFullFilename(path, name, filename, static_cast<int32_t>(sizeof(filename)));

    /* open the input file, get its length, allocate memory for it, read the file */
    file=fopen(filename, "rb");

View on GitHub (pinned to 1b2de5e052)

Solutions

Verify write permissions on the output directory: ls -ld <dir> and touch <dir>/test.
Check for disk space: df -h <dir>.
Remove any file that conflicts with a needed directory name.
Create the directory tree manually before running icupkg: mkdir -p <dir>.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Pre-create directories and verify writability before running icupkg
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
bool ensureDirWritable(const char* dir) {
    if (mkdir(dir, 0755) != 0) {
        struct stat st;
        if (stat(dir, &st) != 0 || !S_ISDIR(st.st_mode)) return false;
    }
    return access(dir, W_OK | X_OK) == 0;
}

Prevention

Run mkdir -p on the output directory before invoking icupkg.
Verify write permissions on the target directory tree.
Check disk space with df -h before large package operations.
Remove conflicting files that occupy names needed for directories.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling writePackage() or any code path that writes package items to a tree directory structure where one of the intermediate directory segments cannot be created. uprv_mkdir() returns a non-zero UErrorCode for permission denied, read-only filesystem, disk quota exceeded, or path-component conflicts (e.g. a file exists where a directory is expected).

Common situations: Output directory is read-only or on a mounted filesystem with insufficient permissions; disk full; an existing file occupies a name where a directory is needed; SELinux/AppArmor denies directory creation; CI runners with restricted /tmp or build directories.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of nodejs/node@1b2de5e052 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/11d1081e66eac16a. Report an issue: GitHub.