pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · RuntimeException

The function call getFileSize throw an error :

Error message

The function call getFileSize throw an error :

What it means

Thrown by ScriptAddedFunctions.getFileSize when an IOException occurs while resolving or reading the file through KettleVFS. The original IOException is swallowed and rethrown as a RuntimeException whose message is the string form of the exception, prefixed with 'The function call getFileSize throw an error : '.

Solutions

  1. Read the wrapped exception text after the prefix to identify the real IOException cause.
  2. Check file read permissions and that the VFS URI scheme/credentials are correct.
  3. Retry the transformation if the cause was a transient network failure on a remote filesystem.
  4. Pre-resolve the file with a KettleVFS-compatible path (no unescaped spaces/special characters).
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

var f = new java.io.File(path);
if (f.exists() && f.canRead()) {
  var size = getFileSize(path);
}

Try / catch

try {
  size = getFileSize(path);
} catch (e) {
  // message is 'The function call getFileSize throw an error : ' + cause
  Logger.logError('getFileSize failed: ' + e.message);
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: KettleVFS.getFileObject or file.getContent() throws IOException: unreadable permission, closed/broken remote connection, malformed VFS URI, or I/O failure while reading content size.

Common situations: SFTP/HTTP VFS connection dropped mid-read, malformed URI with special characters, permissions revoked after the path check, or transient network failures on remote filesystems.

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/4e5801777b458c14. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/script/ScriptAddedFunctions.java:2106

        }
        FileObject file = null;

        try {
          // Source file
          file = KettleVFS.getInstance( bowl ).getFileObject( (String) ArgList[0] );
          long filesize = 0;
          if ( file.exists() ) {
            if ( file.getType().equals( FileType.FILE ) ) {
              filesize = file.getContent().getSize();
            } else {
              throw new RuntimeException( "[" + ArgList[0] + "] is not a file!" );
            }
          } else {
            throw new RuntimeException( "file [" + ArgList[0] + "] can not be found!" );
          }
          return filesize;
        } catch ( IOException e ) {
          throw new RuntimeException( "The function call getFileSize throw an error : " + e.toString() );
        } finally {
          if ( file != null ) {
            try {
              file.close();
            } catch ( Exception e ) {
              // Ignore errors
            }
          }
        }

      } else {
        throw new RuntimeException( "The function call getFileSize is not valid." );
      }
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      throw new RuntimeException( e.toString() );
    }
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to f3058517a1)