stamparm/maltrail · error

trail update failed

Error message

trail update failed: {reason}

What it means

The trail update subsystem returned Outcome::Failed(reason): the updater was available and attempted the refresh but the update itself failed. The sensor logs "trail update failed: {reason}", keeps operating with the existing trails, and calls warn_if_trails_are_stale to flag staleness if the file ages past one update period.

Solutions

  1. Read the ({reason}) detail to identify whether it is network, parse, or write related.
  2. Check outbound network access and retry after transient upstream failures.
  3. Free disk space and verify write permissions on cfg.trails_file.
  4. If persistent, update the trails sources list or refresh manually and restart the sensor.
Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// preflight the updater
let status = std::process::Command::new("python3").arg("core/update.py").arg("--check").status();
assert!(status.map(|s| s.success()).unwrap_or(false), "updater not runnable");

Try / catch

match refresh_trails().await {
    Outcome::Failed(reason) => { log_update_failed(&reason); retry_with_backoff(); keep_existing_trails(); }
    _ => {}
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: refresh_trails receives trailupdate::Outcome::Failed(reason) after invoking the updater: the update process exits non-zero, download of the trails archive fails, or the downloaded data cannot be parsed/written to cfg.trails_file.

Common situations: Temporary upstream outages or CDN errors for the trails sources; rate limiting by IOC feed providers; TLS/certificate problems on the host; disk full when writing the new trails file; corrupt partial downloads.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Something went wrong' / 'Request failed (500)' / 'HTTP error! status: 404' — what failed HTTP requests actually mean and how to find the real cause — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stamparm/maltrail@77cfb06d76 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c0f915ff0a9d8357. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sensor/src/main.rs:1011

                    "[i] trail updates disabled ('DISABLE_TRAIL_UPDATES'); using '{}' as-is",
                    cfg.trails_file.display()
                );
                warn_if_trails_are_stale(cfg);
            }
        }
        trailupdate::Outcome::Unavailable(reason) => {
            ceprintln!("[!] cannot update trails: {reason}");
            ceprintln!(
                "[?] the sensor needs Maltrail's own updater (core/update.py) to refresh '{}'; \
                 without it, IOCs added since that file was written are NOT detected",
                cfg.trails_file.display()
            );
            output::log_error(&format!("trail update unavailable: {reason}"), true);
            warn_if_trails_are_stale(cfg);
        }
        trailupdate::Outcome::Failed(reason) => {
            ceprintln!("[!] trail update failed ({reason}); continuing with the existing trails");
            output::log_error(&format!("trail update failed: {reason}"), true);
            warn_if_trails_are_stale(cfg);
        }
    }
}

/// Loudly flag a trails file older than one update period — the failure mode that cost a live
/// detection: an old file looks perfectly healthy while the sensor quietly misses new IOCs.
fn warn_if_trails_are_stale(cfg: &Config) {
    let Some(age) = trailupdate::trails_age_secs(&cfg.trails_file) else {
        ceprintln!("[!] no trails file at '{}' - the sensor will detect NOTHING", cfg.trails_file.display());
        return;
    };
    if age > cfg.update_period.max(1) {
        let days = age as f64 / 86400.0;
        ceprintln!(
            "[!] '{}' is {:.1} day(s) old (older than UPDATE_PERIOD): every trail added since then \
             is NOT being detected",
            cfg.trails_file.display(),

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