Morganamilo/paru · error · anyhow::Error

option ' ' does not take a value

Error message

option '{}' does not take a value

What it means

When parsing the [options] section of the config, each key must be a known option and, if it is a boolean-style option (ok1), it must not be given an explicit value. This error means the user supplied `option = value` (has_value) for an option that does not take one.

Solutions

1. Remove the value from the option in [options]: write just the option name
2. Check `man paru.conf` for which options take values and which are flags
3. Upgrade/downgrade paru if the option semantics changed between versions

Example fix

// before (paru.conf [options])
SudoLoop = true
// after
[options]
SudoLoop

// ensure flag-style [options] entries have no '=' value
const FLAG_OPTIONS: &[&str] = &["SudoLoop", "Devel", "CleanAfter"];
fn takes_value(option: &str) -> bool { !FLAG_OPTIONS.contains(&option) }

When it happens

Trigger: A line like `SomeFlag = true` in the [options] section of paru.conf where SomeFlag is a flag-style option parsed via parse_options's ok1 branch.

Common situations: Users copying pacman.conf-style syntax into paru.conf; adding `= true`/`= yes` to boolean options after a paru version changed option parsing.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• option expects a value
• unknown option
• unknown option
• option does not allow a value
• option must be a number

AI-assisted analysis of Morganamilo/paru@9ac3578807 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/912ed151c36df5cc. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/config.rs:1153

                for word in value?.split_whitespace() {
                    self.no_warn_builder.add(Glob::new(word)?);
                }
            }
            "Mode" => {
                for word in value?.split_whitespace() {
                    self.mode |= word.parse()?;
                }
            }
            _ => ok2 = false,
        };

        if !(ok1 || ok2) {
            eprintln!(
                "{}",
                tr!("error: unknown option '{}' in section [options]", key)
            )
        } else {
            ensure!(
                ok1 || has_value,
                tr!("option '{}' does not take a value", key)
            );
        }
        Ok(())
    }

    pub fn aur_namespace(&self) -> &str {
        if self.pacman.repos.iter().any(|r| r.name == "aur") {
            // hack for search install
            "__aur__"
        } else {
            "aur"
        }
    }
}

pub fn version() {

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