wavetermdev/waveterm · error

file %q already exists

Error message

file %q already exists

What it means

Returned when the target file already exists and the operation does not overwrite existing files. The path is quoted via %q.

Source

Thrown at pkg/wshrpc/wshremote/wshremote_file.go:421

		if err != nil {
			rtn[path] = wshrpc.FileInfo{
				Path:          wavebase.ReplaceHomeDir(cleanedPath),
				Dir:           computeDirPart(cleanedPath),
				Name:          filepath.Base(cleanedPath),
				StatError:     err.Error(),
				SupportsMkdir: true,
			}
			continue
		}
		rtn[path] = *fileInfo
	}
	return rtn, nil
}

func (impl *ServerImpl) RemoteFileTouchCommand(ctx context.Context, path string) error {
	cleanedPath := filepath.Clean(wavebase.ExpandHomeDirSafe(path))
	if _, err := os.Stat(cleanedPath); err == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("file %q already exists", path)
	}
	if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(cleanedPath), 0755); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("cannot create directory %q: %w", filepath.Dir(cleanedPath), err)
	}
	if err := os.WriteFile(cleanedPath, []byte{}, 0644); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("cannot create file %q: %w", cleanedPath, err)
	}
	return nil
}

func (impl *ServerImpl) RemoteFileMoveCommand(ctx context.Context, data wshrpc.CommandFileCopyData) error {
	destUri := data.DestUri
	srcUri := data.SrcUri

	destConn, err := connparse.ParseURIAndReplaceCurrentHost(ctx, destUri)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("cannot parse destination URI %q: %w", srcUri, err)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to a4447c1563)

Solutions

1. Check existence first with RemoteFileInfoCommand and skip touch if present.
2. Delete the existing file if overwrite is intended (RemoteFileDeleteCommand) then touch.
3. Use a different destination path or add a timestamp suffix.

Example fix

// before
wshclient.RemoteFileTouchCommand(ctx, p, nil)
// after
if _, err := wshclient.RemoteFileInfoCommand(ctx, p, nil); errors.Is(err, fs.ErrNotExist) {
    wshclient.RemoteFileTouchCommand(ctx, p, nil)
}

if _, err := wshclient.RemoteFileInfoCommand(ctx, path, nil); err == nil {
    return nil // already exists, skip touch
}

err := wshclient.RemoteFileTouchCommand(ctx, path, nil)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "already exists") {
    return nil // idempotent touch
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling RemoteFileTouchCommand with a path that already exists as a file, directory, or symlink.

Common situations: Race where another client created the file first; re-running a script twice; assuming Unix touch semantics (which updates mtime instead of erroring).

Understand the failure class

Background: "already exists" / EEXIST / FileAlreadyExistsException: what the 'file already exists' error means and how to fix it — this error's family across 37 libraries.

Related errors

• destination %q already exists
• accessing file %s: %w
• getting absolute path for %s: %w
• reading directory %s: %w
• reading file %s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of wavetermdev/waveterm@a4447c1563 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c6fc25ba5d917c63. Report an issue: GitHub.