yorukot/superfile · error

failed to get absolute path of the first path

Error message

failed to get absolute path of the first path: %w

What it means

isSamePartition resolves both paths to absolute form before comparing filesystems; this error wraps a filepath.Abs failure on the first path. filepath.Abs only fails if the process cannot determine the working directory (e.g. it was deleted) for relative input paths.

Solutions

1. Ensure the process's current working directory exists (cd to a valid dir before invoking).
2. Pass absolute source/destination paths so filepath.Abs has no work to do.
3. Recreate the deleted working directory.
4. Check disk/permission state if Getwd fails system-wide.

Example fix

// before
moveElement("../downloads/file.txt", "/tmp/dest") // cwd deleted
// after
moveElement("/home/user/downloads/file.txt", "/tmp/dest")

if !filepath.IsAbs(src) {
    cwd, err := os.Getwd()
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("cannot resolve relative src: %w", err)
    }
    src = filepath.Join(cwd, src)
}

func isAbsPath(p string) bool { return filepath.IsAbs(p) }

_, err := internal.MoveElementTyped(src, dst) // any API wrapping moveElement
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to check partitions") {
    if werr := errors.Unwrap(errors.Unwrap(err)); werr != nil {
        log.Errorf("partition check failed: %v — retrying with absolute paths", werr)
        return retryWithAbsPaths(src, dst)
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: moveElement or pasteDir call isSamePartition with a relative path1 while os.Getwd fails (current working directory removed or unreadable).

Common situations: Running in a directory that was deleted while the process lives (shell in a rm'd dir); running as a service with a stale/removed cwd; race where the cwd is unmounted mid-operation.

Related errors

• failed to get absolute path of the second path
• cannot access source path
• error saving pinned directories
• error while counting files for
• error writing pinned directories file

AI-assisted analysis of yorukot/superfile@b72f550bc6 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4eb86e5bed39ed82. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/internal/file_operations.go:21

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"log/slog"
	"os"
	"path/filepath"
	"runtime"
	"strings"

	"github.com/yorukot/superfile/src/internal/ui/processbar"
	"github.com/yorukot/superfile/src/pkg/utils"
)

// isSamePartition checks if two paths are on the same filesystem partition
func isSamePartition(path1, path2 string) (bool, error) {
	// Get the absolute path to handle relative paths
	absPath1, err := filepath.Abs(path1)
	if err != nil {
		return false, fmt.Errorf("failed to get absolute path of the first path: %w", err)
	}

	absPath2, err := filepath.Abs(path2)
	if err != nil {
		return false, fmt.Errorf("failed to get absolute path of the second path: %w", err)
	}

	if runtime.GOOS == utils.OsWindows {
		// On Windows, we can check if both paths are on the same drive (same letter)
		drive1 := getDriveLetter(absPath1)
		drive2 := getDriveLetter(absPath2)
		return drive1 == drive2, nil
	}

	// For Unix-like systems, we use the same path to check the root partition
	return filepath.VolumeName(absPath1) == filepath.VolumeName(absPath2), nil
}

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