siyuan-note/siyuan · error

attribute view definition is not a regular file

Error message

attribute view definition is not a regular file: %s

What it means

When checking whether an attribute view used in a document has a local definition, the scanner lstats storage/av/<id>.json. If the entry exists but is not a regular file (directory, symlink, device), the walk aborts because availability cannot be determined safely.

Solutions

1. Remove the non-regular entry and restore a real .json definition file at that path
2. If it is a stray directory, delete it and let the app recreate the definition
3. Fix the sync/backup tool so it dereferences symlinks and never creates directories at that path

Example fix

// before
// data/storage/av/20240101120000-abc123.json is a directory
// after
os.RemoveAll("data/storage/av/20240101120000-abc123.json")
// restore the real file from history/sync

// pre-check every AV definition referenced by documents
info, err := os.Lstat(filepath.Join(dataDir, "storage", "av", avID+".json"))
if err == nil && !info.Mode().IsRegular() {
	// replace the non-regular entry with a real file
}

When it happens

Trigger: A document block references an attribute view whose storage/av/<id>.json path exists but is a directory or symlink instead of a regular file; discovered during the ast.Walk availability check in scanViews.

Common situations: A directory was accidentally created named like an AV id (e.g. by a script appending '/'); sync or backup tooling replaced the file with a symlink; filesystem corruption.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is not a compatible type" / "cannot merge" errors: when a value's type doesn't match what the library requires — this error's family across 65 libraries.

Related errors

• symbolic attribute view is not supported
• asset path contains an unresolved symbolic link
• asset path resolves outside notebook assets directory
• cannot inspect attribute view in notebook
• encrypted attribute view in global storage

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@9f775e8a12 (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/99e2916b3433de0a. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/model/asset_relink.go:382

			}
			reason, checked := availability[n.AttributeViewID]
			if !checked {
				if !ast.IsNodeIDPattern(n.AttributeViewID) {
					reason = "invalid_id"
				} else {
					abs := filepath.Join(dir, n.AttributeViewID+".json")
					if checkErr = p.observe(abs); checkErr != nil {
						return ast.WalkStop
					}
					info, statErr := os.Lstat(abs)
					if os.IsNotExist(statErr) {
						// 数据库定义不参与资源按需下载；缺失定义作为历史残留上报，保留数据库块。
						reason = "missing_definition"
					} else if statErr != nil {
						checkErr = statErr
						return ast.WalkStop
					} else if !info.Mode().IsRegular() {
						checkErr = fmt.Errorf("attribute view definition is not a regular file: %s", abs)
						return ast.WalkStop
					}
				}
				availability[n.AttributeViewID] = reason
			}
			if reason != "" {
				name, loaded := boxNames[tree.Box]
				if !loaded {
					name = (&Box{ID: tree.Box}).GetConf().Name
					boxNames[tree.Box] = name
				}
				p.result.UnavailableAttributeViews = append(p.result.UnavailableAttributeViews, apicontract.UnavailableAssetAttributeView{
					AvID: n.AttributeViewID, Notebook: tree.Box, NotebookName: name, RootID: tree.Root.ID,
					BlockID: n.ID, Path: tree.Path, HPath: tree.HPath, Reason: reason,
				})
			}
			return ast.WalkContinue
		})

View on GitHub (pinned to 9f775e8a12)