wavetermdev/waveterm · error

removing file: %w

Error message

removing file: %w

What it means

fileRmRun issues FileDeleteCommand over RPC and wraps any failure with 'removing file:'. Deletion failures surface here when the RPC itself fails or the remote refuses the delete (permissions, non-empty directory without --recursive).

Source

Thrown at cmd/wsh/cmd/wshcmd-file.go:235

			WriteStdout("\t\t\t%s: %v\n", k, v)
		}
	}
	return nil
}

func fileRmRun(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
	path, err := fixRelativePaths(args[0])
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	recursive, err := cmd.Flags().GetBool("recursive")
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	err = wshclient.FileDeleteCommand(RpcClient, wshrpc.CommandDeleteFileData{Path: path, Recursive: recursive}, &wshrpc.RpcOpts{Timeout: fileTimeout})
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("removing file: %w", err)
	}

	return nil
}

func fileWriteRun(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
	path, err := fixRelativePaths(args[0])
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	fileData := wshrpc.FileData{
		Info: &wshrpc.FileInfo{
			Path: path}}

	limitReader := io.LimitReader(WrappedStdin, MaxFileSize+1)
	data, err := io.ReadAll(limitReader)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("reading input: %w", err)

View on GitHub (pinned to a4447c1563)

Solutions

1. Add --recursive when deleting a non-empty directory.
2. Verify permissions/ownership on the remote file (`wsh file info <path>`) and run as a user allowed to delete it.
3. Confirm connectivity to the remote host and retry; update the remote wsh if versions mismatch.
4. Check the wrapped inner error for the concrete cause (not-found vs permission vs timeout).

Example fix

// before
wsh file rm wsh://user@ec2/logs/app
// after
wsh file rm --recursive wsh://user@ec2/logs/app

info, err := wshclient.FileInfoCommand(RpcClient, fileData, &wshrpc.RpcOpts{Timeout: fileTimeout})
if err != nil || info.NotFound {
    return fmt.Errorf("nothing to delete at %s", path)
}
if info.IsDir && !recursive && !info.CanDelete {
    return fmt.Errorf("directory not empty; use --recursive")
}

err := wshclient.FileDeleteCommand(RpcClient, wshrpc.CommandDeleteFileData{Path: path, Recursive: recursive}, &wshrpc.RpcOpts{Timeout: fileTimeout})
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "directory not empty") && !recursive {
        // retry with recursive=true after confirmation
    }
    return fmt.Errorf("removing file: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: `wsh file rm <path>` (with or without --recursive) where: the remote host is unreachable, the path does not exist or is not writable, deleting a non-empty directory without --recursive, or the RPC times out.

Common situations: rm a directory that still has contents without -r, removing root-owned files as a non-privileged remote user, remote connection dropped mid-delete, stale wsh server after an update.

Related errors

• nil wshrpc passed to wshclient
• no route id available
• starting file stream: %w
• getting file info: %w
• unable to obtain client info: %w

AI-assisted analysis of wavetermdev/waveterm@a4447c1563 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2397f482da75dfa4. Report an issue: GitHub.