pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

PropertyInput.Error.CanNotReadFromFile

Error message

PropertyInput.Error.CanNotReadFromFile

What it means

PropertyInput.getOneRow() wraps any exception that occurs while reading a record from the current properties/INI file into a KettleException with this message and the file name. It indicates the file could not be parsed/read at the point of row production.

Solutions

  1. Verify the file is a valid .properties/.ini file and open it manually
  2. Match the encoding setting in the step dialog to the file's actual encoding
  3. Check the wrapped cause (e.getCause()) for the underlying I/O or parse error
  4. Repair or regenerate the corrupt file
  5. Enable step-level error handling to route bad files to an error stream instead of failing the transformation

Example fix

// before: default charset mismatch
meta.setEncoding(null);
// after
meta.setEncoding("UTF-8"); // match the actual file encoding
// and configure error handling:
stepMeta.getStepErrorMeta().setEnabled(true);
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// sanity-check the file before pointing the step at it
File f = new File(path);
if (!f.isFile() || f.length() == 0) throw new IllegalStateException("Not a valid properties file: " + path);

Try / catch

try {
  transformation.execute(params);
} catch (KettleException e) {
  if (e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().contains("CanNotReadFromFile")) {
    logError("Cannot read " + extractFile(e.getMessage()) + ": " + e.getCause());
    // route to error handling / skip file
  } else { throw e; }
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: An I/O or parse error inside loadProperties/loadIniFile while fetching the next row — corrupt or binary file passed in, encoding mismatch, unreadable file after open, or malformed INI content.

Common situations: Pointing the step at a non-properties/binary file; wrong encoding configured for the file; file truncated or removed mid-run; invalid INI syntax that the ini4j parser chokes on.

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

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e40557ef9d15925f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/propertyinput/PropertyInput.java:302

      }
      // Add Uri
      if ( !Utils.isEmpty( meta.getUriField() ) ) {
        r[data.totalpreviousfields + rowIndex++] = data.uriName;
      }
      // Add RootUri
      if ( !Utils.isEmpty( meta.getRootUriField() ) ) {
        r[data.totalpreviousfields + rowIndex++] = data.rootUriName;
      }

      RowMetaInterface iRow = getInputRowMeta();

      data.previousRow = iRow == null ? r : iRow.cloneRow( r ); // copy it to make
      // surely the next step doesn't change it in between...

      incrementLinesInput();
      data.rownr++;
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "PropertyInput.Error.CanNotReadFromFile", data.file
        .toString() ), e );
    }

    return r;
  }

  private boolean openNextFile() {
    try {
      if ( !meta.isFileField() ) {
        if ( data.filenr >= data.files.nrOfFiles() ) { // finished processing!

          if ( log.isDetailed() ) {
            logDetailed( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "PropertyInput.Log.FinishedProcessing" ) );
          }
          return false;
        }

        // Is this the last file?

View on GitHub (pinned to f3058517a1)