# Nextflow not generating process work folder

**URL:** <https://community.seqera.io/t/nextflow-not-generating-process-work-folder/1618>\
**Category:** Ask for help\
**Tags:** nextflow\
**Created:** [January 16, 2025, 3:50am UTC](https://community.seqera.io/t/nextflow-not-generating-process-work-folder/1618 "2025-01-16T03:50:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jablinski](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.seqera.io/jablinski/32/1366_2.png) [@Jablinski](https://community.seqera.io/u/Jablinski)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 3:50am UTC](https://community.seqera.io/t/nextflow-not-generating-process-work-folder/1618/1 "2025-01-16T03:50:04Z")

</div>

Hello,

I’m noting that my scripts in nextflow isn’t generating a process work directory (under work) as expected. The script throws the following error:

```auto
ERROR ~ Error executing process > 'BBDUK (4)'

Caused by:
  Path value cannot be null

```

Looking more closely at nextflow.log, I can see the following lines, showing that the work dir is being set to null for some reason  
[.nextflow.log](https://community.seqera.io/uploads/short-url/fc87tSW8fOTbyEqDhPS8Didxqqu.log) (52.6 KB)  
:

```auto
Jan.-16 11:35:46.095 [Actor Thread 27] DEBUG nextflow.processor.TaskProcessor - Handling unexpected condition for
  task: name=BBDUK (7); work-dir=null
  error [nextflow.exception.ProcessUnrecoverableException]: Path value cannot be null

```

Does anyone know what is causing this?

Example script:  
[rna\_test.nf](https://community.seqera.io/uploads/short-url/6gKFPYPxqQbcdy2E2LIig7RTlJr.nf) (708 Bytes)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mribeirodantas](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.seqera.io/mribeirodantas/32/235_2.png) [@mribeirodantas](https://community.seqera.io/u/mribeirodantas)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 2:57pm UTC](https://community.seqera.io/t/nextflow-not-generating-process-work-folder/1618/2 "2025-01-16T14:57:42Z")

</div>

Hello @Jablinski. Welcome to the community forum 🙂

You’ll find `work-dir=null` in the `.nextflow.log` when the work dir hasn’t been created. In your case, because the pipeline failed too soon. Inspect your channels, as you may be providing to the process something different from what it is expecting (a path, instead of null).