pion/webrtc · error

IVF signature mismatch

Error message

IVF signature mismatch

What it means

The IVF reader's parseFileHeader rejects a file whose first 4 bytes do not equal the required IVF signature "DKIF". It is a sentinel error fired by a generic guard whenever NewWith is given a stream that is not an IVF container (wrong format, truncated, or shifted data).

Source

Thrown at pkg/media/ivfreader/ivfreader.go:25

if header.signature != ivfFileHeaderSignature {
	return nil, errSignatureMismatch
} else if header.version != uint16(0) {
	return nil, fmt.Errorf("%w: expected(0) got(%d)", errUnknownIVFVersion, header.version)
}

i.bytesReadSuccesfully += int64(bytesRead)

return header, nil

View on GitHub (pinned to 8c25dc09fa)

Solutions

1. Verify the input file begins with the bytes "DKIF" before parsing.
2. Point the code at the correct IVF file or convert the source (e.g. via ffmpeg) to IVF.
3. Classify with errors.Is(err, errSignatureMismatch) to report a friendly 'not an IVF file' message.

Example fix

// before
f, _ := os.Open(path)
r, _, _ := ivfreader.NewWith(f)
// after
magic := make([]byte, 4)
io.ReadFull(f, magic)
if string(magic) != "DKIF" {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s is not an IVF file", path)
}
f.Seek(0, io.SeekStart)
r, _, err := ivfreader.NewWith(f)

magic := make([]byte, 4)
if _, err := io.ReadFull(f, magic); err != nil {
    return err
}
if string(magic) != "DKIF" {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s: not an IVF file (bad magic)", path)
}
f.Seek(0, io.SeekStart)

if err == ivfreader.ErrSignatureMismatch {
    return fmt.Errorf("input is not an IVF file: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: NewWith/parseFileHeader on a non-IVF stream: the first four bytes differ from 'D','K','I','F'.

Common situations: Passing WebM/MKV, MP4, OGG, or raw frame dumps where an IVF was expected; wrong file extension; files concatenated with other formats.

Related errors

• stream is nil
• incomplete frame header
• incomplete frame data
• incomplete file header
• IVF version unknown, parser may not parse correctly

AI-assisted analysis of pion/webrtc@8c25dc09fa (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dd280dcbd837bf85. Report an issue: GitHub.