Troubleshooting Dependabot errors

Sometimes Dependabot is unable to raise a pull request to update your dependencies. You can review the error and unblock Dependabot.

本文内容

About Dependabot errors

Dependabot 提出拉取请求，以更新依赖项。 Dependabot 可能会针对版本更新和/或安全更新提出拉取请求，具体取决于存储库的配置方式。 您可以按与任何其他拉取请求相同的方式管理这些拉取请求，但也有一些额外的可用命令。 有关启用 Dependabot 的信息，请参阅“配置 Dependabot 安全更新”和“配置 Dependabot 版本更新”。

If anything prevents Dependabot from raising a pull request, this is reported as an error.

Note

Dependabot doesn't create pull requests for inactive repositories. For information about inactivity criteria, see 关于 Dependabot 安全更新 and 关于 Dependabot 版本更新, for security and version updates, respectively.

For more information about troubleshooting when running Dependabot on GitHub Actions runners, see 关于 GitHub Actions 运行器上的 Dependabot.

Investigating errors with Dependabot security updates

When Dependabot is blocked from creating a pull request to fix a Dependabot alert, it posts the error message on the alert. The Dependabot alerts view shows a list of any alerts that have not been resolved yet. To access the alerts view, click Dependabot alerts on the Security tab for the repository. Where a pull request that will fix the vulnerable dependency has been generated, the alert includes a link to that pull request.

Screenshot of the Dependabot alerts view. To the right of one alert, a link to a pull request, titled "#353", is outlined in orange.

There are several reasons why an alert may have no pull request link:

  1. Dependabot security updates are not enabled for the repository.
  2. The alert is for an indirect or transitive dependency that is not explicitly defined in a lock file.
  3. An error blocked Dependabot from creating a pull request.

If an error blocked Dependabot from creating a pull request, you can display details of the error by clicking the alert.

Investigating errors with Dependabot version updates

When Dependabot is blocked from creating a pull request to update a dependency in an ecosystem, you can view the job logs list to find out more about the error .

可从存储库的依赖项关系图访问作业日志列表。 在依赖项关系图中，单击 Dependabot 选项卡，然后单击受影响清单文件右侧，单击“最近更新作业”。

To view the full logs files for a particular job, to the right of the log entry you are interested in, click view logs.

Screenshot of the Dependabot job log entries for a manifest file. A button, called "View logs", is highlighted in a dark orange outline.

For more information, see Viewing Dependabot job logs.

Understanding Dependabot errors

Pull requests for security updates act to upgrade a vulnerable dependency to the minimum version that includes a fix for the vulnerability. In contrast, pull requests for version updates act to upgrade a dependency to the latest version allowed by the package manifest and Dependabot configuration files. Consequently, some errors are specific to one type of update.

Dependabot cannot update DEPENDENCY to a non-vulnerable version

Security updates only. Dependabot cannot create a pull request to update the vulnerable dependency to a secure version without breaking other dependencies in the dependency graph for this repository.

Every application that has dependencies has a dependency graph, that is, a directed acyclic graph of every package version that the application directly or indirectly depends on. Every time a dependency is updated, this graph must resolve otherwise the application won't build. When an ecosystem has a deep and complex dependency graph, for example, npm and RubyGems, it is often impossible to upgrade a single dependency without upgrading the whole ecosystem.

The best way to avoid this problem is to stay up to date with the most recently released versions, for example, by enabling version updates. This increases the likelihood that a vulnerability in one dependency can be resolved by a simple upgrade that doesn't break the dependency graph. For more information, see 配置 Dependabot 版本更新.

Dependabot tries to update dependencies without an alert

Security updates only. Dependabot updates explicitly defined transitive dependencies that are vulnerable for all ecosystems. For npm, Dependabot will raise a pull request that also updates the parent dependency if it's the only way to fix the transitive dependency.

For example, a project with a dependency on A version ~2.0.0 which has a transitive dependency on B version ~1.0.0 which has resolved to 1.0.1.

my project
|
--> A (2.0.0) [~2.0.0]
       |
       --> B (1.0.1) [~1.0.0]

If a security vulnerability is released for B versions <2.0.0 and a patch is available at 2.0.0 then Dependabot will attempt to update B but will find that it's not possible due to the restriction in place by A which only allows lower vulnerable versions. To fix the vulnerability, Dependabot will look for updates to dependency A which allow the fixed version of B to be used.

Dependabot automatically generates a pull request that upgrades both the locked parent and child transitive dependencies.

Dependabot fails to close a open pull request for an update that has already been applied on the default branch

Dependabot will close pull requests for dependency updates, once it detects these updates have been committed to the default branch. However, in rare circumstances, the pull request may remain open. If you notice that you have committed an update to a dependency manually, and that the pull request for that same update is still open, you can use one of the following commands in a comment on the pull request:

  • @dependabot recreate, or
  • @dependabot rebase.

Either comment will trigger Dependabot to check if the dependency is no longer upgradable or vulnerable. If Dependabot detects that the pull request is no longer required, it will close the pull request in this particular case.

For more information about Dependabot comment commands, see 管理依赖项更新的所有拉取请求.

Dependabot cannot update to the required version as there is already an open pull request for the latest version

Security updates only. Dependabot will not create a pull request to update the vulnerable dependency to a secure version because there is already an open pull request to update this dependency. You will see this error when a vulnerability is detected in a single dependency and there's already an open pull request to update the dependency to the latest version.

There are two options: you can review the open pull request and merge it as soon as you are confident that the change is safe, or close that pull request and trigger a new security update pull request. For more information, see Triggering a Dependabot pull request manually.

No security update is needed as DEPENDENCY is no longer vulnerable

Security updates only. Dependabot cannot close a pull request to update a dependency that is not, or is no longer, vulnerable. You may see this error when dependency graph data is stale, or when the dependency graph and Dependabot do not agree if a particular version of a dependency is vulnerable.

To debug the problem, we recommend you first examine the dependency graph for your repository, review what version it has detected for the dependency, and check if the identified version matches what is being used in your repository.

If you suspect your dependency graph data is out of date, you may need to manually update the dependency graph for your repository or investigate your dependency information further. For more information, see 依赖关系图疑难排解.

If you are able to confirm the dependency version is no longer vulnerable, you can close the Dependabot pull request.

Dependabot timed out during its update

Dependabot took longer than the maximum time allowed to assess the update required and prepare a pull request. This error is usually seen only for large repositories with many manifest files, for example, npm or yarn monorepo projects with hundreds of package.json files. Updates to the Composer ecosystem also take longer to assess and may time out.

This error is difficult to address. If a version update times out, you could specify the most important dependencies to update using the allow parameter or, alternatively, use the ignore parameter to exclude some dependencies from updates. Updating your configuration might allow Dependabot to review the version update and generate the pull request in the time available.

If a security update times out, you can reduce the chances of this happening by keeping the dependencies updated, for example, by enabling version updates. For more information, see 配置 Dependabot 版本更新.

Dependabot cannot open any more pull requests

There's a limit on the number of open pull requests Dependabot will generate. When this limit is reached, no new pull requests are opened and this error is reported. The best way to resolve this error is to review and merge some of the open pull requests.

There are separate limits for security and version update pull requests, so that open version update pull requests cannot block the creation of a security update pull request. The limit for security update pull requests is 10. By default, the limit for version updates is 5 but you can change this using the open-pull-requests-limit parameter in the configuration file. For more information, see Dependabot options reference.

The best way to resolve this error is to merge or close some of the existing pull requests and trigger a new pull request manually. For more information, see Triggering a Dependabot pull request manually.

Dependabot can't resolve or access your dependencies

If Dependabot attempts to check whether dependency references need to be updated in a repository, but can't access one or more of the referenced files, the operation will fail with the error message "Dependabot can't resolve your LANGUAGE dependency files." The API error type is git_dependencies_not_reachable.

Similarly, if Dependabot can't access a private package registry in which a dependency is located, one of the following errors is generated:

  • "Dependabot can't reach a dependency in a private package registry"
    (API error type: private_source_not_reachable)
  • "Dependabot can't authenticate to a private package registry"
    (API error type:private_source_authentication_failure)
  • "Dependabot timed out while waiting for a private package registry"
    (API error type:private_source_timed_out)
  • "Dependabot couldn't validate the certificate for a private package registry"
    (API error type:private_source_certificate_failure)

To allow Dependabot to update the dependency references successfully, make sure that all of the referenced dependencies are hosted at accessible locations.

Version updates only. 在运行安全性或版本更新时，有些生态系统必须能够解决来自其来源的所有依赖项，以验证版本更新是否成功。 如果清单或锁定文件包含任何私有依赖项，Dependabot 必须能够访问这些依赖项所在的位置。 组织所有者可以授予 Dependabot 访问包含同一个组织内项目依赖项的私有仓库. 有关详细信息，请参阅“管理组织的安全和分析设置”。 你可以在存储库的 dependabot.yml 配置文件中配置对专用注册表的访问。 有关详细信息，请参阅“Dependabot options reference”。 Additionally, Dependabot doesn't support private GitHub dependencies for all package managers. For more information, see Dependabot 支持的生态系统和存储库.

Dependabot fails to group a set of dependencies into a single pull request for Dependabot version updates

The groups configuration settings in the dependabot.yml file can apply to version updates and security updates. Use the applies-to key to specify where (version updates or security updates) a set of grouping rules is applied.

不能将单个分组规则集同时应用于_版本_更新和_安全_更新。 相反，如果要使用相同的条件对版本更新和安全更新进行分组，则必须定义两个分别单独命名的分组规则集。

When you configure grouped version updates, you must configure groups per package ecosystem. To debug the problem, we recommend you look at the logs. For information about accessing the logs for a manifest, see Investigating errors with Dependabot version updates above.

You may have unintentionally created empty groups. This happens, for example, when you set a dependency-type in the allow key for the overall job.

YAML
allow:
  dependency-type: production
  # this restricts the entire job to production dependencies
  groups:
      development-dependencies:
        dependency-type: "development"
        # this group will always be empty

In this example, Dependabot will:

  1. Look at your dependency list and restrict the job to dependencies used in production only.
  2. Try to create a group called development-dependencies which is a subset of this reduced list.
  3. Work out that the development-dependencies group is empty as all development dependencies were removed in step 1.
  4. Individually update all the dependencies that are not in the group. As the group for dependencies in production is empty, Dependabot will ignore the group, and create a separate pull request for each dependency.

You need to ensure that configuration settings don't cancel each other, and update them appropriately in your configuration file.

For more information on how to configure groups for Dependabot version updates, see Dependabot options reference.

Dependabot fails to group a set of dependencies into a single pull request for Dependabot security updates

The groups configuration settings in the dependabot.yml file can apply to version updates and security updates. Use the applies-to key to specify where (version updates or security updates) a set of grouping rules is applied. Check you have grouping configured to apply to security updates. If the applies-to key is absent from a set of grouping rules in your configuration, any group rules will by default only apply to version updates.

不能将单个分组规则集同时应用于_版本_更新和_安全_更新。 相反，如果要使用相同的条件对版本更新和安全更新进行分组，则必须定义两个分别单独命名的分组规则集。

For grouped security updates, Dependabot uses the following guidelines to create grouped pull requests.

  • Dependabot will group dependencies from the same package ecosystem that are located in different directories when grouping rules are specified for configurations that use the directories key.
  • Dependabot will apply other relevant customization options from the dependabot.yml file to pull requests for grouped security updates. dependabot.yml 文件中配置的组规则将覆盖用户界面设置，以便在组织或存储库级别启用或禁用已分组的安全更新。
  • Dependabot will not group dependencies from different package ecosystems together.
  • Dependabot will not group security updates with version updates.

For more information, see 关于 Dependabot 安全更新 and Customizing pull requests for Dependabot security updates.

Dependabot fails to update one of the dependencies in a grouped pull request

There are different troubleshooting techniques you can use for failed version updates and failed security updates.

Handling failures in grouped version updates

Version updates only. Dependabot will show the failed update in your logs, as well as in the job summary at the end of your logs. You should use the @dependabot recreate comment on the pull request to build the group again. For more information, see 管理依赖项更新的所有拉取请求.

If the dependency still fails to update, you should use the exclude-patterns configuration so that the dependency is excluded from the group. Dependabot will then raise a separate pull request to update the dependency.

If the dependency still fails to update, there may be a problem with the dependency itself, or with Dependabot for that specific ecosystem.

如果要忽略依赖项的更新，必须执行下列操作之一。

Handling failures in grouped security updates

Security updates only. If a grouped pull request for security updates fails or is unable to be merged, we recommend you manually open pull requests to bump the versions of breaking changes. When you manually update a package that is included in a grouped pull request, Dependabot will rebase the pull request so it does not include the manually updated package.

如果要忽略依赖项的更新，必须执行下列操作之一。

Continuous integration (CI) fails on my grouped pull request

Version updates only. If the failure is due to a single dependency, you should use the exclude-patterns configuration so that the dependency is excluded from the group. Dependabot will then raise a separate pull request to update the dependency.

如果要忽略依赖项的更新，必须执行下列操作之一。

If you continue to see CI failures, you should remove the group configuration so that Dependabot reverts to raising individual pull requests for each dependency. Then, you should check and confirm that the update works correctly for each individual pull request.

Triggering a Dependabot pull request manually

If you unblock Dependabot, you can manually trigger a fresh attempt to create a pull request.

  • Security updates: Display the Dependabot alert that shows the error you have fixed and click Create Dependabot security update.
  • Version updates: On the Insights tab for the repository click Dependency graph, and then click the Dependabot tab. Click Last checked TIME ago to see the log file that Dependabot generated during the last check for version updates. Click Check for updates.

Further reading