zed-industries/zed · error · std::io::Error

paths may not contain interior null bytes

Error message

paths may not contain interior null bytes

What it means

The Unix-domain socket path contains a NUL byte, which cannot be represented in the fixed SOCKADDR_UN sun_path buffer (the address would be silently truncated). sockaddr_un rejects it as invalid input.

Source

Thrown at crates/net/src/util.rs:35

        if result != 0 {
            panic!("WSAStartup failed: {}", result);
        }
    });
}

// https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/af_unix-comes-to-windows/
pub(crate) fn sockaddr_un<P: AsRef<Path>>(path: P) -> Result<(SOCKADDR_UN, usize)> {
    let mut addr = SOCKADDR_UN::default();
    addr.sun_family = ADDRESS_FAMILY(AF_UNIX);

    let bytes = path
        .as_ref()
        .to_str()
        .map(|s| s.as_bytes())
        .ok_or(ErrorKind::InvalidInput)?;

    if bytes.contains(&0) {
        return Err(Error::new(
            ErrorKind::InvalidInput,
            "paths may not contain interior null bytes",
        ));
    }
    if bytes.len() >= addr.sun_path.len() {
        return Err(Error::new(
            ErrorKind::InvalidInput,
            "path must be shorter than SUN_LEN",
        ));
    }

    unsafe {
        std::ptr::copy_nonoverlapping(
            bytes.as_ptr(),
            addr.sun_path.as_mut_ptr().cast(),
            bytes.len(),
        );
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to f4178619ac)

Solutions

1. Reject or sanitize paths containing NUL bytes before creating sockets
2. Use a shorter, clean path for the socket file

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/net/src/util.rs:35 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/0a1639ab514e2865. Report an issue: GitHub.