pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · GisException

Error reading shape file

Error message

Error reading shape file

What it means

ShapeFile.readFile wraps any IOException from reading the .shp stream or the XBase DBF rows into a GisException 'Error reading shape file'. It is a generic I/O failure while walking shape records, after the file was opened successfully.

Solutions

1. Verify the .shp file size against the length recorded in its 100-byte main header; re-download/re-copy if truncated.
2. Ensure .shp and .dbf record counts match (use a shapefile validator such as shpcheck or ogrinfo).
3. Copy the shapefile set to local disk instead of reading over the network.
4. Check the wrapped IOException cause for the exact read failure.

Example fix

// before
FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream( "/mnt/net/data.shp" ); // network drop mid-read
// after
File local = new File( "/tmp/data.shp" );
Files.copy( Paths.get( "/mnt/net/data.shp" ), local.toPath() ); // full local copy first
FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream( local );

File shp = new File( path );
try ( RandomAccessFile raf = new RandomAccessFile( shp, "r" ) ) {
  byte[] h = new byte[100]; raf.readFully( h );
  long expected = Integer.reverseBytes( ByteBuffer.wrap( h ).getInt( 24 ) ) * 2L;
  if ( shp.length() < expected ) throw new IllegalStateException( ".shp truncated: " + shp.length() + " < " + expected );
}

try {
  shapeFile.readFile();
} catch ( GisException e ) {
  if ( e.getCause() instanceof IOException ) {
    log.error( "I/O failure reading shapefile, re-fetch the file", e );
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: The DataInputStream over the .shp hits EOF early (truncated file), a disk/network read fails, or xbase.getRow throws an IOException while pairing DBF rows with shapes.

Common situations: Incomplete downloads/copies of the .shp, files with mismatched .shp/.dbf record counts, network-mounted shapefiles with dropped connections, or corrupt headers claiming more bytes than exist.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to read file", EACCES, ENOENT and "could not read <path>" errors: when a program can't read a file from disk — this error's family across 49 libraries.

Related errors

• AvroInput.Error.ObjectReadError
• Could not read file
• JobSQL.ErrorRunningSQLfromFile
• shape type : not recognized! ( )
• throw new KettleException( e );

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/96b232d3c0752387. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/shapefilereader/core/src/main/java/org/pentaho/gis/shapefiles/ShapeFile.java:158

              throw new GisException( "shape type : " + btype + " not recognized! (" + Shape.getEsriTypeDesc( btype ) + ")" );
          }

          // Get a row from the associated DBF file...
          Object[] row = xbase.getRow( fields );
          if ( row != null ) {
            esi.setDbfData( row );
            esi.setDbfMeta( xbase.getFields() );
          }

          shapes.add( esi );
          id++;
        }
      }

      dis.close();
      xbase.close();
    } catch ( IOException e ) {
      throw new GisException( "Error reading shape file", e );
    }
  }

  public int getNrShapes() {
    return shapes.size();
  }

  public ShapeInterface getShape( int i ) {
    return shapes.get( i );
  }

  public void addShape( ShapeInterface esi ) {
    shapes.add( esi );
  }

  public ShapeFileHeader getFileHeader() {
    return fileheader;
  }

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