siyuan-note/siyuan · error

failed to write file paths to pasteboard

Error message

failed to write file paths to pasteboard

What it means

The macOS cgo helper writeFilePathsToPasteboard returns a generic failure code (anything other than 0 or -2) when writing file paths to NSPasteboard fails. Go maps that to this opaque error; the underlying Cocoa error details are not propagated.

Solutions

1. Retry the write once after a short delay (pasteboard may be transiently busy)
2. Verify paths exist and are accessible, then retry
3. If persistent, file/diagnose in the helper — the return code is unmapped so add logging around the C call

Example fix

// before
if err := util.WriteFilePaths(paths); err != nil { return err }
// after
if err := util.WriteFilePaths(paths); err != nil {
    time.Sleep(50 * time.Millisecond)
    if err2 := util.WriteFilePaths(paths); err2 != nil { return err2 }
}

for _, p := range paths { if _, err := os.Stat(p); err != nil { return err } }

if err := util.WriteFilePaths(paths); err != nil {
    time.Sleep(100 * time.Millisecond)
    if retryErr := util.WriteFilePaths(paths); retryErr != nil {
        // report persistent pasteboard failure
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling util.WriteFilePaths on macOS when the NSPasteboard write fails — e.g. pasteboard unavailable, out of memory, or an unexpected return code from the Objective-C helper.

Common situations: Pasteboard contention with another app holding the pasteboard, sandboxed/oddly-permissioned environments, or a bug in the helper returning an unmapped code.

Related errors

• no valid file paths to write (invalid UTF-8 or path)
• directory assets are not supported in encrypted notebooks
• failed to read iCloud file resource status
• Field [assets. .box] should be of type [String]
• Field [assets. ] should be of type [Object]

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@9f775e8a12 (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/61b57467bc73bc4e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/util/clipboard_darwin.go:102

	// 分配 C 的 char* 数组，便于传入 Objective-C
	cPaths := make([]*C.char, len(paths))
	for i, p := range paths {
		cPaths[i] = C.CString(p)
	}
	defer func() {
		for _, c := range cPaths {
			C.free(unsafe.Pointer(c))
		}
	}()
	// 取首元素地址作为 const char** 传入
	ret := C.writeFilePathsToPasteboard((**C.char)(unsafe.Pointer(&cPaths[0])), C.int(len(paths)))
	switch ret {
	case 0:
		return nil
	case -2:
		return errors.New("no valid file paths to write (invalid UTF-8 or path)")
	default:
		return errors.New("failed to write file paths to pasteboard")
	}
}

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