wagoodman/dive · warning

unable to propagate layer tree: %w

Error message

unable to propagate layer tree: %w

What it means

SetTreeByLayer wraps errors from vm.ModelTree.VisitDepthChildFirst while copying per-node ViewInfo (collapse/hidden state) onto the freshly stacked tree. The visitor in this code path always returns nil, so the wrapped error can only come from the traversal machinery itself — in practice this is a defensive, near-unreachable wrapper.

Source

Thrown at cmd/dive/cli/internal/ui/v1/viewmodel/filetree.go:128

	if topTreeStop > len(vm.RefTrees)-1 {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid layer index given: %d of %d", topTreeStop, len(vm.RefTrees)-1)
	}
	newTree, err := vm.comparer.GetTree(filetree.NewTreeIndexKey(bottomTreeStart, bottomTreeStop, topTreeStart, topTreeStop))
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to fetch layer tree from cache: %w", err)
	}

	// preserve vm state on copy
	visitor := func(node *filetree.FileNode) error {
		newNode, err := newTree.GetNode(node.Path())
		if err == nil {
			newNode.Data.ViewInfo = node.Data.ViewInfo
		}
		return nil
	}
	err = vm.ModelTree.VisitDepthChildFirst(visitor, nil)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to propagate layer tree: %w", err)
	}

	vm.ModelTree = newTree
	return nil
}

// CursorUp performs the internal view's buffer adjustments on cursor up. Note: this is independent of the gocui buffer.
func (vm *FileTreeViewModel) CursorUp() bool {
	if vm.TreeIndex <= 0 {
		return false
	}
	vm.TreeIndex--
	if vm.TreeIndex < vm.bufferIndexLowerBound {
		vm.bufferIndexLowerBound--
	}
	if vm.bufferIndex > 0 {
		vm.bufferIndex--
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to d6c691947f)

Solutions

1. If in stock dive, capture the full error chain and report upstream — it indicates corrupted tree state
2. Audit forks for changes to the visitor closure (it must keep returning nil for benign misses)
3. Ensure no goroutine mutates vm.ModelTree concurrently with layer switches
4. Re-run analysis on the image to rebuild trees from scratch

if err := vm.ModelTree.VisitDepthChildFirst(visitor, nil); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("unable to propagate layer tree: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: VisitDepthChildFirst returning an error while walking the old model tree; the closure never errors, so this requires a tree in a structurally invalid state (nil root, corrupted parent/child links) or modified traversal code in a fork.

Common situations: Practically unseen in stock dive; possible in forks that add fallible logic to the state-copy visitor; memory corruption or concurrent mutation of ModelTree from another goroutine could theoretically trip the walker.

Related errors

• unable to propagate tree on cursorLeft: %w
• unable to propagate vm model tree: %w
• file tree has path errors (use '--ignore-errors' to attempt
• unable to setup debug controller: %w
• notifyOnViewOptionChangeListeners error: %w

AI-assisted analysis of wagoodman/dive@d6c691947f (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/567160f65faf34a4. Report an issue: GitHub.