sbt server fails to start throwing error 231

Question

When I am trying to start sbt, it fails throwing an IO exception.

Version of SBT - 1.1.2

Version of Scala - 2.12.6

Error:

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM warning: ignoring option MaxPermSize=256m; support was removed in 8.0
[info] Loading project definition from C:\Users\username\IdeaProjects\projectname\project
[info] Loading settings from build.sbt ...
[info] Set current project to example (in build file:/C:/Users/username/IdeaProjects/projectname/)
[error] server failed to start on local:sbt-server-ad238fc8ee352b69065c. java.io.IOException: Could not create lock for
\\.\pipe\sbt-server-ad238fc8ee352b69065c_lock, error 231

Answer 1

Analysing the source of the throw it seems error code 231 refers to Windows error:

ERROR_PIPE_BUSY

231 (0xE7)

All pipe instances are busy.

The pipe cannot be accessed because another process is using it, so try closing down IntelliJ and any other SBT server running, and try again later. Perhaps even reboot the machine, and then start a single system SBT server (not IntelliJ), and see if the issue persists.