os error 32?

[daranzolin]

Description

I have been running the same Quarto reports for over a year, and today I am suddenly getting Error: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (os error 32). I haven't changed anything. It's a fairly complex project within a targets pipeline, so before I try and create a reprex, can someone help me brainstorm possible reasons? I haven't updated Quarto, changed the code, or any file paths, etc.

[cscheid]

Some other process is attempting to open the file at the same time, and Windows doesn't like that. We haven't changed anything about that on our side either - maybe your OS upgrade caused something like anti-virus scanners to be more active?

[mcanouil]

Thanks for ruling this out as it was the most common case (also with os error 1920).

• OS ERROR 32 & OS ERROR 145 when using Quarto on a Dropbox directory. SOLUTION: Use local folder.  #4670

[mcanouil]

Since you stated the issue happen on your local computer hard drive, would you mind try with a simple document to reproduce? In case it's something from your document.

---

R	Python
````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: knitr --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. {{< lipsum 1 >}} ```{r} x <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) y <- c(1, 4, 9, 16, 25) plot(x, y) ``` {#fig-placeholder} {{< lipsum 1 >}} The end after @fig-placeholder. ````	````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: jupyter --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. {{< lipsum 1 >}} ```{python} import matplotlib.pyplot as plt x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] y = [1, 4, 9, 16, 25] plt.plot(x, y) plt.show() ``` {#fig-placeholder} {{< lipsum 1 >}} The end after @fig-placeholder. ````

[daranzolin]

This renders fine. If I had to guess, it's related to the presence of nested content via knitr::knit_expand() and knitr::knit_child(), since the only reports that get this error have lots of child documents.

[mcanouil]

Unfortunately, without the means to reproduce on our side with a small and simple example, it's going to be very hard to help.

[daranzolin]

When I remove the chunks (or just eval=FALSE) with knitr::expand() and knitr::knit_child() the reports render.

[daranzolin]

Moving this outside the replies. When I try and execute a qmd with knitr::knir_expand() and knitr::knit_child() I get the following error:

Error: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (os error 32), remove 'C:\<redacted>\Documents\Projects\<redacted>_files\execute-results'
    at Object.removeSync (deno:runtime/js/30_fs.js:157:9)
    at removeIfExists (file:///C:/<redacted>~1/AppData/Local/Programs/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:5681:14)
    at removeFreezeResults (file:///C:/<redacted>~1/AppData/Local/Programs/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:86413:5)
    at renderExecute (file:///C:/<redacted>~1/AppData/Local/Programs/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:86501:9)
    at async renderFiles (file:///<redacted>~1/AppData/Local/Programs/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:86593:51)
    at async renderProject (file:///<redacted>~1/AppData/Local/Programs/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:86800:25)
    at async Command.fn (file:///C:/<redacted>~1/AppData/Local/Programs/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:90856:32)
    at async Command.execute (file:///C:/<redacted>~1/AppData/Local/Programs/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:8437:13)
    at async quarto (file:///C:/<redacted>~1/AppData/Local/Programs/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:127545:5)
    at async file:///C:/<redacted>~1/AppData/Local/Programs/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:127563:9

[cscheid]

Sounds good, and thanks. Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do until we can try it on our own side.

[cderv]

Thanks for sharing the stack trace. It seems related to freezing process. Somehow, the execute-results can't be removed.

@cscheid it makes me thing about the problem I am trying to resolve in this PR:

• windows - wait to file to unlock for removal #10629

OS locking conflict while Deno is trying to remove a directory. It happens for me sometimes with mediabag in VSCODE context.

So I am wondering if this is somewhat the same type of issue where OS is for whatever reason still on lock with the file while Deno is trying to remove it and can't.

[daranzolin]

I did some more testing, and I'm now pretty convinced it's related to the quantity of child content spawned at the deepest level in the parent-child hierarchy. When I reduce it to five groups, it renders every time. It fails at six groups every time.

Edit: more likely it's related to either (1) removing the reactable tables from the child documents; or (2) the downloadthis extension is looking for files that perhaps don't exist.

[mcanouil]

downloadthis extension

What do you mean here? The R package, the Quarto extension? Something else?

At some point, you'll have to provide concrete example of your setup.
I suggest you remove pieces one at a time to end up with something small that could be share.
We can keep guessing but it won't get us close to an actual solution (except if we are lucky).

I suggest you update this thread when you have something we can work on.

[daranzolin]

@mcanouil Understood. See above.

At each level a different {reactable} table is generated, along with {downloadthis} buttons

[xx02al]

Hi
I am aware that pre-release builds are intended for testing purposes, and are not recommended for general use. Nevertheless, I thought it may help to make you aware of the following. With quarto v1.7.16 quarto render in the terminal errors as illustrated next (the path is shortened). I observed it on a windows machine.

Error occured during cleanup: Error: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (os error 32), remove 'C:\...\Temp\quarto-sessionid'

This occurs with Positron as well as on RStudio. I tried it an can confirm downgrading quarto to 1.6.42 helps have things working without any error - using version v1.7.16 has this issue.

Below are some reprex files with which I can observe it. Can you reproduce the issue, do you know a reason and how to fix it!?

_quarto.yml

project:
  type: book

book:
  title: "another-book"
  author: "Norah Jones"
  date: "2025-03-14"
  chapters:
    - index.qmd
    - intro.qmd
    - summary.qmd
    - references.qmd

bibliography: references.bib

format:
  html:
    theme:
      - cosmo
      - brand
  pdf:
    documentclass: scrreprt

index.qmd

# Preface {.unnumbered}

This is a Quarto book.

To learn more about Quarto books visit <https://quarto.org/docs/books>.

intro.qmd

# Introduction

This is a book created from markdown and executable code.

See @knuth84 for additional discussion of literate programming.

references.bib

@article{knuth84,
  author = {Knuth, Donald E.},
  title = {Literate Programming},
  year = {1984},
  issue_date = {May 1984},
  publisher = {Oxford University Press, Inc.},
  address = {USA},
  volume = {27},
  number = {2},
  issn = {0010-4620},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/comjnl/27.2.97},
  doi = {10.1093/comjnl/27.2.97},
  journal = {Comput. J.},
  month = may,
  pages = {97–111},
  numpages = {15}
}

references.qmd

# References {.unnumbered}

::: {#refs}
:::

summary.qmd

# Summary

In summary, this book has no content whatsoever.

[xx02al]

great! thanks @cderv for your efforts and also this info, I was just looking again 2, 3 hours ago to see what the situation might be

[andreashandel]

I seem to have the same problem with Quarto (1.7.32) through Positron. If I open a project/repo and do a 'quarto render' in the terminal, it works. If I then I try to run the same 'quarto render' again (even without changing anything), I get:
ERROR: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (os error 32):

If I go through the same process with RStudio, I have not problem rendering multiple times. However, if also open the project (which is also a Github repository) in Positron and then try to render it more than once in RStudio, I get the same error. It seems Positron (or an extension, like Github?) is interfering with Quarto cleanup.

I have a fairly simple project, just 11 qmd files, minimal code chunks, for a basic website: https://github.com/andreashandel/SISMID2025

Some positron info:
Positron Version: 2025.06.0 (system setup) build 167
Code - OSS Version: 1.100.0
Commit: e7e5d5590adc6bf7b760f837051cd2f57ea9e3dc
Date: 2025-05-29T21:27:54.586Z
Electron: 34.5.1
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

[cderv]

@andreashandel do you have some error printed ? Is there a stack trace ?
Can you opt in verbose mode to give us more details on the issue ?

Also does running Quarto render through the command palette gives you the same issue ?

With this kind of issue, it could also depend on which extension you have in your Positron setup. If one is scanning all files and does some locking on the file, this will cause a file locking issue on Windows.

I'll be interested with the log results as I did not encountered that recently on Windows, except with dev version. And this would reactivate interest in

• windows - wait to file to unlock for removal #10629
  Thanks

[andreashandel]

@cderv here's a bit more information:

TLDR: The Windsurf Extension that I use for AI support is the problem.

Details:

I tried to replicate the problem on a different, very similarly configured computer. It "works", i.e. I get the same error doing the following:

• Cloning the above referenced repo to my local Windows machine.
• Opening the repo with Positron (build 167), running Quart 1.7.32.
• Going into the terminal and typing 'quarto render'. Below is the full error message, labelled with 1.

Curiously, sometimes (I don't know when/why), the same error message shows up right at the beginning of the rendering process. I placed one of these below, labelled with 2.

I do get the same error when I run Quarto through the command palette (though I got it to work once, but then I tried again and the error came back).

The extensions I have running (other than those that come pre-installed) that might be relevant: Windsurf, GitHub PR (the other computer has more, but the one also producing error messages just has those currently running).

I tried to turn the extensions off. And it seems that the Windsurf Plugin is the problem. After I turn it off, I can render on both computers without getting the error message (tried multiple times on each machine). Then I turned it back on, the error message comes back.

So I guess my simple fix is to temporarily disable Windsurf AI support before rendering. And long-term waiting for the built-in Positron AI assistant :)

############## Error 1
PS C:\Data\GitHub\andreashandel\SISMID2025> quarto render
[ 1/13] Course_Communication.qmd
[ 2/13] Course_Project.qmd
[ 3/13] Course_Resources.qmd
[ 4/13] Course_Schedule.qmd
[ 5/13] Course_Syllabus.qmd
[ 6/13] andreas-presentations\building-your-brand-presentation\2025-SISMID-building-your-brand.qmd
[ 7/13] andreas-presentations\introduction-to-modeling\introduction-to-modeling-slides.qmd
[ 8/13] andreas-presentations\modeling-bacterial-infections\2025_Bacteria_Models_Slides.qmd
[ 9/13] andreas-presentations\modeling-coinfections\2025-modeling-coinfections-slides.qmd
[10/13] andreas-presentations\modeling-macroparasites\2025-modeling-macroparasites-slides.qmd
[11/13] andreas-presentations\modeling-vaccines-drugs\2025_Vaccines_Drugs_Slides.qmd
[12/13] andreas-presentations\modeling-viral-infections\2025_Virus_Models_Slides.qmd
[13/13] index.qmd

ERROR: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (os error 32): rename 'C:\Data\GitHub\andreashandel\SISMID2025\andreas-presentations\modeling-viral-infections\2025_Virus_Models_Slides.html' -> 'C:\Data\GitHub\andreashandel\SISMID2025\docs\andreas-presentations\modeling-viral-infections\2025_Virus_Models_Slides.html'

Stack trace:
at Object.renameSync (ext:deno_fs/30_fs.js:267:3)
at safeMoveSync (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:2354:14)
at renderProject (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:87372:17)
at eventLoopTick (ext:core/01_core.js:175:7)
at async Command.actionHandler (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:91975:32)
at async Command.execute (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:8253:13)
at async Command.parseCommand (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:8143:20)
at async quarto (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:133948:9)
at async file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:133978:9
at async file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:133830:20
####### End Error 1

####### Error 2
PS C:\Data\GitHub\andreashandel\SISMID2025> quarto render
ERROR: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (os error 32): remove 'C:\Data\GitHub\andreashandel\SISMID2025\docs'

Stack trace:
at Object.removeSync (ext:deno_fs/30_fs.js:250:3)
at safeRemoveSync (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:2369:14)
at removeIfExists (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:5009:9)
at renderProject (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:87257:17)
at eventLoopTick (ext:core/01_core.js:175:7)
at async Command.actionHandler (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:91975:32)
at async Command.execute (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:8253:13)
at async Command.parseCommand (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:8143:20)
at async quarto (file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:133948:9)
at async file:///C:/Program Files/Quarto/bin/quarto.js:133978:9
####### End Error 2

[cderv]

As this is a locked file issue, this is definitely possible that Windsurf AI is the culprit by accessing the file at the same time as Quarto.

Positron Assistant is now in Preview if you want to give it a try: https://positron.posit.co/assistant.html