sharkdp/fd · error · anyhow::Error

'{}' is not a recognized user name

Error message

'{}' is not a recognized user name

What it means

Thrown in src/filter/owner.rs:44 during OwnerFilter::from_string. After the uid token fails to parse as a u32 integer, fd falls back to nix::unistd::User::from_name; if that lookup also returns None (no passwd entry), the name is treated as unrecognized.

Source

Thrown at src/filter/owner.rs:44

    /// Returns Ok(None) when string is acceptable but a noop (such as "" or ":")
    pub fn from_string(input: &str) -> Result<Self> {
        let mut it = input.split(':');
        let (fst, snd) = (it.next(), it.next());

        if it.next().is_some() {
            return Err(anyhow!(
                "more than one ':' present in owner string '{}'. See 'fd --help'.",
                input
            ));
        }

        let uid = Check::parse(fst, |s| {
            if let Ok(uid) = s.parse() {
                Ok(uid)
            } else {
                User::from_name(s)?
                    .map(|user| user.uid.as_raw())
                    .ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("'{}' is not a recognized user name", s))
            }
        })?;
        let gid = Check::parse(snd, |s| {
            if let Ok(gid) = s.parse() {
                Ok(gid)
            } else {
                Group::from_name(s)?
                    .map(|group| group.gid.as_raw())
                    .ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("'{}' is not a recognized group name", s))
            }
        })?;

        Ok(OwnerFilter { uid, gid })
    }

    /// If self is a no-op (ignore both uid and gid) then return `None`, otherwise wrap in a `Some`
    pub fn filter_ignore(self) -> Option<Self> {
        if self == Self::IGNORE {

View on GitHub (pinned to 41532d114e)

Solutions

1. Verify the name resolves: 'id <name>' or 'getent passwd <name>'.
2. Use the numeric uid instead: 'fd --owner 1000'.
3. Fix NSS/passwd resolution (e.g. mount /etc/passwd, configure nsswitch/ldap) and retry.

Example fix

// before
fd --owner ghost

// after
getent passwd ghost || fd --owner 1000

# resolve a uid before passing it to fd
resolve_owner() {
  case "$1" in
    '' | *:*) printf '%s\n' "$1" ;;            # already uid or uid:gid form
    *)
      if ! id "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "unknown user: $1" >&2; return 1
      fi
      printf '%s\n' "$1"
      ;;
  esac
}
fd --owner "$(resolve_owner "$OWNER")"

fn uid_resolves(name: &str) -> bool {
    name.parse::<u32>().is_ok()
        || nix::unistd::User::from_name(name).ok().flatten().is_some()
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing 'fd --owner ghost' where 'ghost' is neither a numeric uid nor a name present in /etc/passwd (or the NSS passwd database).

Common situations: Typos in a username; querying a container that lacks the host's user database; LDAP/NSS user not resolvable in the current namespace; a user that was deleted.

Related errors

• more than one ':' present in owner string '{}'. See 'fd --he
• '{}' is not a recognized group name
• '{}' is not a valid size constraint. See 'fd --help'.
• '{}' is not a valid date or duration. See 'fd --help'.
• The pattern(s) seems to only match files with a leading dot,

AI-assisted analysis of sharkdp/fd@41532d114e (2026-08-06). Data as JSON: /data/errors/55dc486efd308188.json. Report an issue: GitHub.