pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

ProcessFiles.Error.TargetParentFolderNotExists

Error message

ProcessFiles.Error.TargetParentFolderNotExists

What it means

Thrown when the target file's parent folder does not exist and the 'Create parent folder' option is disabled. Pentaho refuses to write/move the file into a nonexistent directory rather than silently creating it.

Solutions

  1. Enable 'Create parent folder' checkbox in the ProcessFiles step dialog.
  2. Create the target directory beforehand with a job entry (e.g. 'Create a folder' or shell mkdir -p).
  3. Fix the target path expression if the parent folder name is accidentally wrong (typo, wrong env variable).
  4. Use error handling to catch the failure and create the folder in a recovery path.

Example fix

// before (step XML)
<create_parent_folder>N</create_parent_folder>
// after
<create_parent_folder>Y</create_parent_folder>
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Guard: parent folder must exist (or be creatable) before ProcessFiles
java.io.File parent = new java.io.File(targetFilename).getParentFile();
boolean ok = parent != null && (parent.exists() || parent.mkdirs());

Type guard

boolean parentFolderReady(String targetPath) {
  java.io.File p = (targetPath == null) ? null : new java.io.File(targetPath).getParentFile();
  return p != null && p.isDirectory();
}

Try / catch

try {
  processRow();
} catch (KettleException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().contains("TargetParentFolderNotExists")) {
    logError("Enable 'Create parent folder' or create: " + extractPath(e));
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Operation Copy/Move; data.targetFile.exists() is false; parentFolder.exists() is false; meta.isCreateParentFolder() is false.

Common situations: Target directory tree not created before the transformation runs; timestamped/dynamic folder names (e.g. /out/2026/09/13) that don't exist yet; deploy difference between dev and prod environments where folders were created manually.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dd7d4a7cf853e9da. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/processfiles/ProcessFiles.java:146

        }
        data.targetFile = KettleVFS.getInstance( getTransMeta().getBowl() ).getFileObject( targetFilename, getTransMeta() );
        if ( data.targetFile.exists() ) {
          if ( log.isDetailed() ) {
            logDetailed( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "ProcessFiles.Log.TargetFileExists", targetFilename ) );
          }
          // check if target is really a file otherwise it could overwrite a complete folder by copy or move operations
          if ( data.targetFile.getType() != FileType.FILE ) {
            logError( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "ProcessFiles.Error.TargetFileNotFile", targetFilename ) );
            throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString(
              PKG, "ProcessFiles.Error.TargetFileNotFile", targetFilename ) );
          }

        } else {
          // let's check parent folder
          FileObject parentFolder = data.targetFile.getParent();
          if ( !parentFolder.exists() ) {
            if ( !meta.isCreateParentFolder() ) {
              throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString(
                PKG, "ProcessFiles.Error.TargetParentFolderNotExists", parentFolder.toString() ) );
            } else {
              parentFolder.createFolder();
            }
          }
          if ( parentFolder != null ) {
            parentFolder.close();
          }
        }
      }

      switch ( meta.getOperationType() ) {
        case ProcessFilesMeta.OPERATION_TYPE_COPY:
          if ( ( ( meta.isOverwriteTargetFile() && data.targetFile.exists() ) || !data.targetFile.exists() )
            && !meta.simulate ) {
            data.targetFile.copyFrom( data.sourceFile, new TextOneToOneFileSelector() );
            if ( log.isDetailed() ) {
              logDetailed( BaseMessages.getString(

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