pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

GPLoadDataOutput.Exception" + e.getMessage()

Error message

GPLoadDataOutput.Exception" + e.getMessage()

What it means

open() wraps stream construction (FileOutputStream, OutputStreamWriter, PrintWriter) in a try/catch and rethrows any IOException as a KettleException with prefix 'GPLoadDataOutput.Exception'. This means the data file could not be opened/written — typically path or permission problems, not metadata problems.

Solutions

  1. Verify the directory in the data file path exists and is writable by the PDI user (mkdir/chmod)
  2. Validate the configured encoding is a supported charset name (use Charset.isSupported) or switch to UTF-8
  3. Check available disk space on the target filesystem
  4. Inspect the wrapped cause (e.getCause()) for the precise IOException

Example fix

// before
File f = new File("/nonexistent/dir/data.txt");
// after
File dir = new File("/data/load");
dir.mkdirs();
File f = new File(dir, "data.txt");
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

File dir = new File(dataFile).getParentFile();
if (dir == null || !dir.isDirectory() || !dir.canWrite()) throw new IllegalStateException("Cannot write to dir: " + dir);
Charset c = Charset.isSupported(encoding) ? Charset.forName(encoding) : StandardCharsets.UTF_8;

Try / catch

try { dataOutput.open(); } catch (KettleException e) {
  Throwable cause = e.getCause();
  if (cause instanceof FileNotFoundException) { /* fix path/permissions */ }
  else if (cause instanceof java.nio.charset.UnsupportedCharsetException || cause instanceof UnsupportedEncodingException) { /* fix encoding */ }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: new FileOutputStream(dataFile, false) throws FileNotFoundException (directory does not exist, no write permission, path is a directory), or OutputStreamWriter with a bad encoding name throws UnsupportedEncodingException (subclass of IOException).

Common situations: Data file path points to a non-existent or read-only directory; running as a user without write access; invalid/typo'd character encoding configured in the step (e.g. 'utf8 ' vs 'UTF-8' handled differently by some JVMs); disk full on temp volume.

Understand the failure class

Background: "open() failed", "failed to open file", "cannot create file" — what a file open error means and how to fix it — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5bb7fd704fe36eb5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/gpload/core/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/gpload/GPLoadDataOutput.java:107

      dataFile = space.environmentSubstitute( dataFile );
      if ( Utils.isEmpty( dataFile ) ) {
        throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "GPload.Exception.DataFileMissing" ) );
      }

      log.logDetailed( "Creating temporary load file " + dataFile );
      os = new FileOutputStream( dataFile, false );
      //

      String encoding = meta.getEncoding();
      if ( Utils.isEmpty( encoding ) ) {
        // Use the default encoding.
        output = new PrintWriter( new BufferedWriter( new OutputStreamWriter( os ) ) );
      } else {
        // Use the specified encoding
        output = new PrintWriter( new BufferedWriter( new OutputStreamWriter( os, encoding ) ) );
      }
    } catch ( IOException e ) {
      throw new KettleException( "GPLoadDataOutput.Exception" + e.getMessage(), e );
    }
  }

  public void close() throws IOException {
    if ( output != null ) {
      output.close();
    }
  }

  PrintWriter getOutput() {
    return output;
  }

  protected void setOutput( PrintWriter output ) {
    this.output = output;
  }

  private String createEscapedString( String orig, String enclosure ) {

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