t8y2/dbx · error

Failed to read Oracle TNS file %s: %w

Error message

Failed to read Oracle TNS file %s: %w

What it means

readOracleTNSAliases opens the resolved absolute TNS file with os.Open; if that fails (file missing, permission denied, path is a directory), the OS error is wrapped in this message. This is the standard 'cannot read tnsnames.ora' failure for the Oracle driver.

Source

Thrown at agents/drivers/oracle-go/tns.go:117

	return tnsNamesPath, nil
}

func readOracleTNSAliases(path string, visited map[string]bool, depth int) (map[string]string, error) {
	if depth > 8 {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Oracle TNS include depth exceeds 8 files")
	}
	absolutePath, err := filepath.Abs(path)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Failed to resolve Oracle TNS file path: %w", err)
	}
	if visited[absolutePath] {
		return map[string]string{}, nil
	}
	visited[absolutePath] = true

	file, err := os.Open(absolutePath)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Failed to read Oracle TNS file %s: %w", absolutePath, err)
	}
	defer file.Close()

	aliases := make(map[string]string)
	var currentAliases []string
	var description strings.Builder
	descriptionStarted := false
	parenthesisDepth := 0
	flush := func() {
		if len(currentAliases) == 0 {
			return
		}
		value := strings.Join(strings.Fields(description.String()), " ")
		if value != "" {
			for _, alias := range currentAliases {
				alias = strings.ToUpper(strings.TrimSpace(alias))
				if alias != "" {
					aliases[alias] = value

View on GitHub (pinned to c0390bff16)

Solutions

1. Verify the file exists at the reported absolutePath (ls -l <path>) and fix the TNS path configuration
2. Check read permissions for the agent's user; chown/chmod as needed
3. Confirm TNS_ADMIN environment variable or the tnsNamesPath option points to the correct directory
4. In containers, ensure the TNS file is mounted into the image/pod
5. Read the wrapped %w error to distinguish not-found vs permission-denied

Example fix

// before: wrong path configured
path := "/etc/oracle/tnsnames.ora.bak"

// after: validate before use
path := "/etc/oracle/tnsnames.ora"
if _, err := os.Stat(path); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("TNS file missing: %v", err)
}

func tnsFileReadable(path string) error {
    info, err := os.Stat(path)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("TNS file missing: %w", err)
    }
    if info.IsDir() {
        return fmt.Errorf("%s is a directory, not a file", path)
    }
    f, err := os.Open(path)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("TNS file unreadable: %w", err)
    }
    f.Close()
    return nil
}
// run before resolveOracleTNSAlias

aliases, err := resolveOracleTNSAlias(name)
if err != nil {
    var perr *fs.PathError
    if errors.As(err, &perr) && errors.Is(perr.Err, fs.ErrNotExist) {
        log.Printf("TNS file not found at %s; check TNS_ADMIN", perr.Path)
    } else if errors.As(err, &perr) && errors.Is(perr.Err, fs.ErrPermission) {
        log.Printf("Permission denied reading %s", perr.Path)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: resolveOracleTNSAlias pointed at a TNS file path that does not exist, has wrong permissions, or is a directory — os.Open fails and the error is wrapped at tns.go:117.

Common situations: TNS_ADMIN or tnsNamesPath config pointing at a stale/nonexistent path; file mounted read-only or owned by another user in containers; typo in the configured TNS file path; file deleted after path discovery.

Understand the failure class

Background: "File not found" and ENOENT errors: why libraries can't find a file that should exist — this error's family across 50 libraries.

Related errors

• Oracle TNS_ADMIN directory is not accessible: %s
• Oracle TNS_ADMIN must be a directory containing tnsnames.ora
• Oracle tnsnames.ora was not found in TNS_ADMIN directory: %s
• Failed to resolve Oracle TNS file path: %w
• Oracle TNS network alias is invalid

AI-assisted analysis of t8y2/dbx@c0390bff16 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/995393911ed681ee. Report an issue: GitHub.