zed-industries/zed · error

absolute path not allowed: {path:?}

Error message

absolute path not allowed: {path:?}

What it means

RelPath::new rejected the input because, after stripping leading './' prefixes and trailing separators, the remaining string still looks absolute (e.g. starts with '/' or a Windows drive prefix). RelPath's invariant is that it names something under a worktree root, so absolute paths are forbidden.

Source

Thrown at crates/path/src/rel_path.rs:77

    pub fn new<'a>(path: &'a Path, path_style: PathStyle) -> Result<Cow<'a, Self>> {
        let mut path = path.to_str().context("non utf-8 path")?;

        let (prefixes, suffixes): (&[_], &[_]) = match path_style {
            PathStyle::Unix => (&["./"], &['/']),
            PathStyle::Windows => (&["./", ".\\"], &['/', '\\']),
        };

        while prefixes.iter().any(|prefix| path.starts_with(prefix)) {
            path = &path[prefixes[0].len()..];
        }
        while let Some(prefix) = path.strip_suffix(suffixes)
            && !prefix.is_empty()
        {
            path = prefix;
        }

        if is_absolute(&path, path_style) {
            return Err(anyhow!("absolute path not allowed: {path:?}"));
        }

        let mut string = Cow::Borrowed(path);
        if path_style == PathStyle::Windows && path.contains('\\') {
            string = Cow::Owned(string.as_ref().replace('\\', "/"))
        }

        let mut result = match string {
            Cow::Borrowed(string) => Cow::Borrowed(Self::from_str(string)),
            Cow::Owned(string) => Cow::Owned(RelPathBuf(string)),
        };

        if result
            .components()
            .any(|component| component == "" || component == "." || component == "..")
        {
            let mut normalized = RelPathBuf::new();
            for component in result.components() {

View on GitHub (pinned to f4178619ac)

Solutions

1. Strip the absolute prefix before constructing the RelPath — usually by making the path relative to the worktree root
2. Check PathStyle handling on Windows, where both '/' and '\' roots and drive letters must be removed
3. Validate persisted relative paths (settings, databases) for absolute entries that may have leaked in

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/path/src/rel_path.rs:77 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of zed-industries/zed@f4178619ac (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ae4959aceca03038. Report an issue: GitHub.