wavetermdev/waveterm · error

file info is required

Error message

file info is required

What it means

streamReadFromFile in cmd/wsh/cmd/wshcmd-file-util.go requires the FileData to carry a populated Info pointer, because the streaming path needs Info.Path to parse the connection URI and to send to the remote FileStreamCommand. The wsh CLI throws this error when a caller passes FileData with Info == nil.

Source

Thrown at cmd/wsh/cmd/wshcmd-file-util.go:99

		appendData := fileData
		appendData.Data64 = base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(chunk)

		err = wshclient.FileAppendCommand(RpcClient, appendData, &wshrpc.RpcOpts{Timeout: int64(fileTimeout)})
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("appending chunk to file: %w", err)
		}
	}

	return nil
}

func streamReadFromFile(ctx context.Context, fileData wshrpc.FileData, writer io.Writer) error {
	broker := RpcClient.StreamBroker
	if broker == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("stream broker not available")
	}
	if fileData.Info == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("file info is required")
	}
	readerRouteId := RpcClientRouteId
	if readerRouteId == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("no route id available")
	}
	conn, err := connparse.ParseURI(fileData.Info.Path)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("parsing file path: %w", err)
	}
	writerRouteId := wshutil.MakeConnectionRouteId(conn.Host)
	reader, streamMeta := broker.CreateStreamReader(readerRouteId, writerRouteId, 256*1024)
	defer reader.Close()
	go func() {
		<-ctx.Done()
		reader.Close()
	}()
	data := wshrpc.CommandFileStreamData{
		Info:       fileData.Info,

View on GitHub (pinned to a4447c1563)

Solutions

1. Ensure FileData.Info is initialized: FileData{Info: &wshrpc.FileInfo{Path: path}} before calling streamReadFromFile.
2. If path may be empty, fail early with a clear message before building FileData.
3. Check the calling code (fileCatRun) still populates Info after any refactor; add a nil-check guard upstream.

Example fix

// before
fileData := wshrpc.FileData{}
err = streamReadFromFile(ctx, fileData, os.Stdout)
// after
fileData := wshrpc.FileData{Info: &wshrpc.FileInfo{Path: path}}
err = streamReadFromFile(ctx, fileData, os.Stdout)

if fileData.Info == nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("cannot stream file: FileData.Info must be set with a Path")
}
err := streamReadFromFile(ctx, fileData, os.Stdout)

func hasFileInfo(fd wshrpc.FileData) bool { return fd.Info != nil && fd.Info.Path != "" }

if err := streamReadFromFile(ctx, fileData, w); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "file info is required") {
        // caller bug: FileData built without Info — fix construction
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling streamReadFromFile (via `wsh file cat`) with a wshrpc.FileData whose Info field was never allocated, e.g. FileData{Info: nil} or FileData{} constructed programmatically instead of from CLI args.

Common situations: Custom builds or forks of wsh that construct FileData directly (e.g. from a config value that is empty), or refactors that changed fileCatRun's path handling so the FileInfo literal is skipped when path is empty.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• nil wshrpc passed to wshclient
• starting file stream: %w
• no route id available
• parsing file path: %w
• reading file: %w

AI-assisted analysis of wavetermdev/waveterm@a4447c1563 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/53d2e3c2931e00e0. Report an issue: GitHub.