siyuan-note/siyuan · error

template path is not a regular file

Error message

template path is not a regular file

What it means

ReadTemplateFile opens a template file and refuses to read it unless the filesystem entry is a regular file. After opening the path and calling file.Stat(), it checks info.Mode().IsRegular(); directories, devices, sockets, FIFOs, and similar special files are rejected with this error to avoid reading unbounded or meaningless byte streams as template content.

Solutions

1. Pass the path of an actual template file, not a directory or special file
2. Verify with os.Stat(path).Mode().IsRegular() before calling
3. If a symlink is involved, ensure its target is a regular file
4. Recreate the template as a normal file if it was replaced by a pipe/device

Example fix

// before
ReadTemplateFile("data/templates") // directory
// after
ReadTemplateFile("data/templates/hello.md") // regular file

info, err := os.Stat(path)
if err != nil { return err }
if !info.Mode().IsRegular() { return fmt.Errorf("%s is not a regular file", path) }

func isRegularFile(path string) bool { i, err := os.Stat(path); return err == nil && i.Mode().IsRegular() }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ReadTemplateFile with a path that resolves to a directory, a named pipe/FIFO, a device node, or (on some platforms) a symlink target that is not a regular file. The open succeeds, so the failure surfaces only at the Stat/IsRegular check.

Common situations: A template directory path passed instead of a file path; a misconfigured template folder setting pointing at a directory; tmpfs/pipe-based paths in container setups; a symlink loop or symlink to /dev/null or a socket being used as a template.

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

• check data.zip failed
• child template [ ] is not a regular file
• Conf.Language(14) (copy data dir failed: )
• copy asset [ ] to [ ] failed
• create history directory

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@9f775e8a12 (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/379a9c3ed94d041e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/model/template_path.go:51

// ReadTemplateFile 在模板根目录内读取普通文件，禁止通过符号链接读取目录外的数据。
func ReadTemplateFile(p string) ([]byte, error) {
	root, rel, err := openTemplatePath(p)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	defer root.Close()
	file, err := root.Open(rel)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	defer file.Close()
	info, err := file.Stat()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	if !info.Mode().IsRegular() {
		return nil, errors.New("template path is not a regular file")
	}
	return io.ReadAll(file)
}

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