tonhowtf/omniget · error · anyhow::Error

source not a file

Error message

source not a file: {}

What it means

set_pdfium_from_path() installs a pdfium shared library from a user-supplied path. Before doing anything it verifies the source path is an existing regular file; directories, symlinks to nothing, or nonexistent paths are rejected with this error that echoes the path via Display.

Solutions

  1. Pass the actual shared library file (e.g. libpdfium.so / pdfium.dll), not a directory or the archive
  2. Check the path exists with std::path::Path::is_file() before calling
  3. If starting from the downloaded archive, extract it first and locate pdfium_lib_filename() within
  4. Re-run ensure_pdfium() to get a valid library if the local copy is missing

Example fix

// before
set_pdfium_from_path(Path::new("~/Downloads/pdfium")).await?;
// after
let lib = Path::new("~/Downloads/pdfium/libpdfium.so");
if !lib.is_file() { panic!("select the library file, not the folder"); }
set_pdfium_from_path(lib).await?;
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

let p = std::path::Path::new(source);
if !p.is_file() {
    eprintln!("{} is not a file — select the pdfium library itself", p.display());
}

Type guard

fn is_regular_file(p: &std::path::Path) -> bool {
    p.is_file() && std::fs::metadata(p).map(|m| m.len() > 0).unwrap_or(false)
}

Try / catch

match set_pdfium_from_path(src) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("source not a file") => {
        // prompt user to pick the library file, not a directory/archive
    }
    other => other.map(|_| ()),
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling set_pdfium_from_path() with a path that does not exist, points to a directory, or is a broken symlink — e.g. a typo'd path or passing the extracted archive directory instead of the .so/.dll inside it.

Common situations: User selects a folder instead of the library file in a picker; pointing at the downloaded .tar.gz instead of the extracted library; path moved after download.

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

AI-assisted analysis of tonhowtf/omniget@8600b91f42 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5280baa527768719. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src-tauri/omniget-core/src/core/pdfium.rs:229

    {
        let _ = tokio::task::spawn_blocking({
            let p = target_path.clone();
            move || {
                crate::core::process::std_command("xattr")
                    .args(["-d", "com.apple.quarantine"])
                    .arg(&p)
                    .output()
            }
        })
        .await;
    }

    Ok(target_path)
}

pub fn set_pdfium_from_path(source: &Path) -> anyhow::Result<PathBuf> {
    if !source.is_file() {
        return Err(anyhow!("source not a file: {}", source.display()));
    }
    let target_dir =
        pdfium_target_dir().ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("could not determine app data dir"))?;
    std::fs::create_dir_all(&target_dir)
        .with_context(|| format!("creating pdfium target dir {}", target_dir.display()))?;
    let lib_filename = pdfium_lib_filename();
    let target_path = target_dir.join(lib_filename);

    let tmp = target_dir.join(format!(".{}.tmp", lib_filename));
    std::fs::copy(source, &tmp)
        .with_context(|| format!("copying {} → {}", source.display(), tmp.display()))?;
    if target_path.exists() {
        let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&target_path);
    }
    std::fs::rename(&tmp, &target_path)
        .with_context(|| format!("renaming temp to {}", target_path.display()))?;

    if let Some(version_marker) = pdfium_version_marker_path() {

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