owasp-amass/amass · error

libpostal is not available

Error message

libpostal is not available

What it means

ParseAddressOptions was called while the libpostal C library failed to initialize (libpostal_setup/libpostal_setup_parser returned false at process start), so postalLibAvailable is false. This is a sentinel guard (ErrPostalLibNotAvailable): the CGO bindings are compiled in but the native library/data files are unusable or were never set up.

Source

Thrown at internal/libpostal/cgo_specific.go:50

	if bool(C.libpostal_setup()) && bool(C.libpostal_setup_parser()) {
		postalLibAvailable = true
	}
}

func getDefaultParserOptions() ParserOptions {
	return ParserOptions{
		Language: "",
		Country:  "",
	}
}

func ParseAddress(ctx context.Context, address string) ([]ParsedComponent, error) {
	return ParseAddressOptions(ctx, address, parserDefaultOptions)
}

func ParseAddressOptions(ctx context.Context, address string, options ParserOptions) ([]ParsedComponent, error) {
	if !postalLibAvailable {
		return nil, errors.New(ErrPostalLibNotAvailable)
	}

	if !utf8.ValidString(address) {
		return nil, errors.New("address is not a valid UTF-8 string")
	}

	postalLock.Lock()
	defer postalLock.Unlock()

	cAddress := C.CString(address)
	defer C.free(unsafe.Pointer(cAddress))

	cOptions := C.libpostal_get_address_parser_default_options()
	if options.Language != "" {
		cLanguage := C.CString(options.Language)
		defer C.free(unsafe.Pointer(cLanguage))

		cOptions.language = cLanguage

View on GitHub (pinned to 79299dce87)

Solutions

1. Verify libpostal and its data files are installed (libpostal_data download-all / make install) and reachable by the linker/runtime
2. Run the setup routines once in an init path you control and log the failure before any ParseAddress call
3. Disable the libpostal-backed features or build tag them out when the environment cannot provide the library

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at internal/libpostal/cgo_specific.go:50 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of owasp-amass/amass@79299dce87 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dafafa1f7c1159e1. Report an issue: GitHub.