quarkusio/quarkus · error · IllegalArgumentException

File ${p} does not exist

Error message

File ${p} does not exist

What it means

RegistriesConfigMapperHelper.deserialize(Path p, Class<T>) reads and parses a registry config file, but first requires the file to exist; passing a path that is not an existing regular file throws this IllegalArgumentException. It is a precondition check so callers get a clear message rather than a NoSuchFileException buried in YAML parsing.

Source

Thrown at independent-projects/tools/registry-client/src/main/java/io/quarkus/registry/config/RegistriesConfigMapperHelper.java:67

        if (!Files.exists(p.getParent())) {
            Files.createDirectories(p.getParent());
        }
        try (BufferedWriter writer = Files.newBufferedWriter(p)) {
            mapper(p).writeValue(writer, config);
        }
    }

    public static void toJson(Object config, Writer writer) throws IOException {
        jsonMapper().writeValue(writer, config);
    }

    public static void toYaml(Object config, Writer writer) throws IOException {
        yamlMapper().writeValue(writer, config);
    }

    public static <T> T deserialize(Path p, Class<T> t) throws IOException {
        if (!Files.exists(p)) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("File " + p + " does not exist");
        }
        try (BufferedReader reader = Files.newBufferedReader(p)) {
            return mapper(p).readValue(reader, t);
        }
    }

    public static <T> T deserializeYaml(InputStream is, Class<T> t) throws IOException {
        return yamlMapper().readValue(is, t);
    }

    public static <T> T deserializeYaml(Reader reader, Class<T> t) throws IOException {
        return yamlMapper().readValue(reader, t);
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

1. Check Files.exists(path) before calling deserialize and handle the missing case (use locateConfigYaml/createDefault if appropriate)
2. Correct the path in the calling code — print path.toAbsolutePath() to confirm where it actually resolves
3. Generate the config file if it should exist (e.g. by writing the default config before deserializing)

Example fix

// before
RegistriesConfig cfg = RegistriesConfigMapperHelper.deserialize(path, RegistriesConfig.class);
// after
if (!Files.exists(path)) {
    path = RegistriesConfigLocator.locateConfigYaml(null);
}
RegistriesConfig cfg = RegistriesConfigMapperHelper.deserialize(path, RegistriesConfig.class);

if (p == null || !Files.isRegularFile(p)) {
    p = RegistriesConfigLocator.locateConfigYaml(null);
}

try {
    return RegistriesConfigMapperHelper.deserialize(p, RegistriesConfig.class);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException | IOException e) {
    logger.warn("Cannot read registry config {}: {}", p, e.getMessage());
    return RegistriesConfigLocator.createDefault();
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling deserialize(p, RegistriesConfig.class) with a path that was never created, was deleted, or is a directory/symlink to a nonexistent target; locating a config path yourself and passing it in without an existence check.

Common situations: Custom tooling loading registries.yaml from a user-supplied path; tests pointing at a fixture file that is not on the test classpath/working directory; first-run scenarios where no default config has been generated yet.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Config file not found": what it means and how to fix it in docker-sync, Maven, Vagrant, Turborepo and other tools — this error's family across 60 libraries.

Related errors

• Unable to read file + path
• does not exist
• File does not exist: ${file}
• File is not a regular file: ${file}
• File cannot be read: ${file}

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a5aa8541ca3b33f1. Report an issue: GitHub.