tauri-apps/tauri · error

failed to read binary path

Error message

failed to read binary path

What it means

For every non-main [[bin]] binary in the project, the MSI bundler converts its built path to a UTF-8 String for the WiX data. into_string() fails when that path (target directory plus binary name) contains non-UTF-8 bytes.

Source

Thrown at crates/tauri-bundler/src/bundle/windows/msi/mod.rs:953

    binaries.push(Binary {
      guid: Uuid::new_v4().to_string(),
      path: dest
        .into_os_string()
        .into_string()
        .expect("failed to read external binary path"),
      id: wix_identifier(&dest_filename),
    });
  }

  for bin in settings.binaries() {
    if !bin.main() {
      binaries.push(Binary {
        guid: Uuid::new_v4().to_string(),
        path: settings
          .binary_path(bin)
          .into_os_string()
          .into_string()
          .expect("failed to read binary path"),
        id: wix_identifier(bin.name()),
      })
    }
  }

  Ok(binaries)
}

#[derive(Serialize)]
struct MergeModule {
  name: String,
  path: String,
}

fn get_merge_modules(settings: &Settings) -> crate::Result<Vec<MergeModule>> {
  let mut merge_modules = Vec::new();
  let regex = Regex::new(r"[^\w\d\.]")?;
  for msm in glob::glob(

View on GitHub (pinned to 52e4b6e71d)

Solutions

1. Move or clone the project to an all-ASCII path (e.g. C:\src\app) and rebuild
2. Rename the offending non-UTF-8 path component
3. On Windows, also set TMP/TEMP to an ASCII directory as a precaution

// before MSI bundling a multi-bin crate, confirm the target path is UTF-8
let out = std::path::Path::new(env!("CARGO_TARGET_DIR"));
if out.to_str().is_none() {
  eprintln!("project/target path is not valid UTF-8 — move the project to an ASCII path");
  std::process::exit(1);
}

When it happens

Trigger: MSI bundling a crate that declares extra [[bin]] targets while the project or target path contains non-UTF-8 bytes — a legacy-encoded checkout directory on Unix, or unpaired-surrogate path segments on Windows.

Common situations: Projects checked out under user directories with non-UTF-8 names; locale-mangled folder names; usually appears together with the temp-path variant (error 176).

Related errors

• failed to extract external binary filename
• failed to read external binary path
• failed to convert merge module filename to string
• Language {} not found. It must be one of {}
• Failed to setup custom handlebar template

AI-assisted analysis of tauri-apps/tauri@52e4b6e71d (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8c16b6625233bb29. Report an issue: GitHub.