Why does sbt fail with java.io.IOException: Permission denied at startup?

Question

I've installed sbt on Mac OS X 10.9 via MacPorts. If I run sbt as root - all works fine, but as a user - I got an exception.

java.io.IOException: Permission denied
at java.io.UnixFileSystem.createFileExclusively(Native Method)
at java.io.File.createNewFile(File.java:1012)
at scala.reflect.io.AbstractFile.fileOrSubdirectoryNamed(AbstractFile.scala:235)
at scala.reflect.io.AbstractFile.fileNamed(AbstractFile.scala:246)
at scala.tools.nsc.backend.jvm.BytecodeWriters$class.getFile(BytecodeWriters.scala:34)
at scala.tools.nsc.backend.jvm.BytecodeWriters$class.scala$tools$nsc$backend$jvm$BytecodeWriters$$getFile(BytecodeWriters.scala:37)
at scala.tools.nsc.backend.jvm.BytecodeWriters$ClassBytecodeWriter$class.writeClass(BytecodeWriters.scala:89)
at scala.tools.nsc.backend.jvm.GenASM$AsmPhase$$anon$4.writeClass(GenASM.scala:67)
at scala.tools.nsc.backend.jvm.GenASM$JBuilder.writeIfNotTooBig(GenASM.scala:459)
at scala.tools.nsc.backend.jvm.GenASM$JMirrorBuilder.genMirrorClass(GenASM.scala:2980)
at scala.tools.nsc.backend.jvm.GenASM$AsmPhase.run(GenASM.scala:114)
at sbt.compiler.Eval$$anonfun$compile$1$1.apply$mcV$sp(Eval.scala:159)
at sbt.compiler.Eval$$anonfun$compile$1$1.apply(Eval.scala:159)
at sbt.compiler.Eval$$anonfun$compile$1$1.apply(Eval.scala:159)
at scala.reflect.internal.SymbolTable.atPhase(SymbolTable.scala:207)
at sbt.compiler.Eval.compile$1(Eval.scala:159)
at sbt.compiler.Eval.compileAndLoad(Eval.scala:164)
at sbt.compiler.Eval.evalCommon(Eval.scala:135)
at sbt.compiler.Eval.eval(Eval.scala:86)
at sbt.EvaluateConfigurations$.evaluateSetting(EvaluateConfigurations.scala:144)
at sbt.EvaluateConfigurations$$anonfun$9.apply(EvaluateConfigurations.scala:106)
at sbt.EvaluateConfigurations$$anonfun$9.apply(EvaluateConfigurations.scala:105)
at scala.collection.TraversableLike$$anonfun$map$1.apply(TraversableLike.scala:244)
at scala.collection.TraversableLike$$anonfun$map$1.apply(TraversableLike.scala:244)
at scala.collection.immutable.List.foreach(List.scala:318)
at scala.collection.TraversableLike$class.map(TraversableLike.scala:244)
at scala.collection.AbstractTraversable.map(Traversable.scala:105)
at sbt.EvaluateConfigurations$.evaluateSbtFile(EvaluateConfigurations.scala:105)
at sbt.Load$.sbt$Load$$loadSettingsFile$1(Load.scala:507)
at sbt.Load$$anonfun$sbt$Load$$memoLoadSettingsFile$1$1.apply(Load.scala:502)
at sbt.Load$$anonfun$sbt$Load$$memoLoadSettingsFile$1$1.apply(Load.scala:501)
at scala.Option.getOrElse(Option.scala:120)
at sbt.Load$.sbt$Load$$memoLoadSettingsFile$1(Load.scala:501)
at sbt.Load$$anonfun$loadSettings$1$2.apply(Load.scala:500)
at sbt.Load$$anonfun$loadSettings$1$2.apply(Load.scala:500)
at scala.collection.TraversableLike$$anonfun$map$1.apply(TraversableLike.scala:244)
at scala.collection.TraversableLike$$anonfun$map$1.apply(TraversableLike.scala:244)
at scala.collection.mutable.ResizableArray$class.foreach(ResizableArray.scala:59)
at scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer.foreach(ArrayBuffer.scala:47)
at scala.collection.TraversableLike$class.map(TraversableLike.scala:244)
at scala.collection.AbstractTraversable.map(Traversable.scala:105)
at sbt.Load$.loadSettings$1(Load.scala:500)
at sbt.Load$.sbt$Load$$expand$1(Load.scala:523)
at sbt.Load$.loadSettings(Load.scala:528)
at sbt.Load$.sbt$Load$$loadSbtFiles$1(Load.scala:464)
at sbt.Load$.defaultLoad$1(Load.scala:475)
at sbt.Load$.loadTransitive(Load.scala:478)
at sbt.Load$.loadProjects$1(Load.scala:418)
at sbt.Load$.loadUnit(Load.scala:419)
at sbt.Load$$anonfun$15$$anonfun$apply$11.apply(Load.scala:256)
at sbt.Load$$anonfun$15$$anonfun$apply$11.apply(Load.scala:256)
at sbt.BuildLoader$$anonfun$componentLoader$1$$anonfun$apply$4$$anonfun$apply$5$$anonfun$apply$6.apply(BuildLoader.scala:93)
at sbt.BuildLoader$$anonfun$componentLoader$1$$anonfun$apply$4$$anonfun$apply$5$$anonfun$apply$6.apply(BuildLoader.scala:92)
at sbt.BuildLoader.apply(BuildLoader.scala:143)
at sbt.Load$.loadAll(Load.scala:312)
at sbt.Load$.loadURI(Load.scala:264)
at sbt.Load$.load(Load.scala:260)
at sbt.Load$.load(Load.scala:251)
at sbt.Load$.apply(Load.scala:134)
at sbt.Load$.buildPluginDefinition(Load.scala:613)
at sbt.Load$.buildPlugins(Load.scala:579)
at sbt.Load$.plugins(Load.scala:567)
at sbt.Load$.loadUnit(Load.scala:411)
at sbt.Load$$anonfun$15$$anonfun$apply$11.apply(Load.scala:256)
at sbt.Load$$anonfun$15$$anonfun$apply$11.apply(Load.scala:256)
at sbt.BuildLoader$$anonfun$componentLoader$1$$anonfun$apply$4$$anonfun$apply$5$$anonfun$apply$6.apply(BuildLoader.scala:93)
at sbt.BuildLoader$$anonfun$componentLoader$1$$anonfun$apply$4$$anonfun$apply$5$$anonfun$apply$6.apply(BuildLoader.scala:92)
at sbt.BuildLoader.apply(BuildLoader.scala:143)
at sbt.Load$.loadAll(Load.scala:312)
at sbt.Load$.loadURI(Load.scala:264)
at sbt.Load$.load(Load.scala:260)
at sbt.Load$.load(Load.scala:251)
at sbt.Load$.apply(Load.scala:134)
at sbt.Load$.defaultLoad(Load.scala:37)
at sbt.BuiltinCommands$.doLoadProject(Main.scala:473)
at sbt.BuiltinCommands$$anonfun$loadProjectImpl$2.apply(Main.scala:467)
at sbt.BuiltinCommands$$anonfun$loadProjectImpl$2.apply(Main.scala:467)
at sbt.Command$$anonfun$applyEffect$1$$anonfun$apply$2.apply(Command.scala:60)
at sbt.Command$$anonfun$applyEffect$1$$anonfun$apply$2.apply(Command.scala:60)
at sbt.Command$$anonfun$applyEffect$2$$anonfun$apply$3.apply(Command.scala:62)
at sbt.Command$$anonfun$applyEffect$2$$anonfun$apply$3.apply(Command.scala:62)
at sbt.Command$.process(Command.scala:95)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$1$$anonfun$apply$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:100)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$1$$anonfun$apply$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:100)
at sbt.State$$anon$1.process(State.scala:179)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:100)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:100)
at sbt.ErrorHandling$.wideConvert(ErrorHandling.scala:18)
at sbt.MainLoop$.next(MainLoop.scala:100)
at sbt.MainLoop$.run(MainLoop.scala:93)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$runWithNewLog$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:71)
at sbt.MainLoop$$anonfun$runWithNewLog$1.apply(MainLoop.scala:66)
at sbt.Using.apply(Using.scala:25)
at sbt.MainLoop$.runWithNewLog(MainLoop.scala:66)
at sbt.MainLoop$.runAndClearLast(MainLoop.scala:49)
at sbt.MainLoop$.runLoggedLoop(MainLoop.scala:33)
at sbt.MainLoop$.runLogged(MainLoop.scala:25)
at sbt.StandardMain$.runManaged(Main.scala:57)
at sbt.xMain.run(Main.scala:29)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$$anonfun$run$1.apply(Launch.scala:109)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$.withContextLoader(Launch.scala:129)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$.run(Launch.scala:109)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$$anonfun$apply$1.apply(Launch.scala:36)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$.launch(Launch.scala:117)
at xsbt.boot.Launch$.apply(Launch.scala:19)
at xsbt.boot.Boot$.runImpl(Boot.scala:44)
at xsbt.boot.Boot$.main(Boot.scala:20)
at xsbt.boot.Boot.main(Boot.scala)

~/.sbt/* ~/.ivy2/* are owned by my user /opt/local/share/sbt - in which sbt script and sbt-launch.jar resides has 777 permission with this files.

Seems sbt wants to create file somewhere and fails, if you don't know exact solution for this, please advise how can I debug. Is it possible to see some sbt log, or maybe there is some system tool to define where sbt want to create the file.

Thanks in advise.

Answer 1

One cause of this problem might be that you ran sbt as root :). When you did that, sbt created things in your directory (like the target directories) as root, and now they're owned by root. When you re-run sbt as yourself, you can't access those directories anymore.

You now either have to fix all of the directory/file ownerships/permissions, or delete them all. When you re-run sbt from your account, it will re-create those directories/files under your account, and it will work.

If you're working from a git repo, just re-clone the project and re-run sbt as yourself instead of root.