MuntashirAkon/AppManager · error · IllegalArgumentException

Minor device number is out of range: + devNo

Error message

Minor device number is out of range: + devNo

What it means

Thrown by TarArchiveEntry.setDevMinor when the minor device number passed in is negative. Device numbers in tar entries are unsigned per the format, so a negative value cannot be represented and the method rejects it eagerly rather than writing a corrupt entry.

Solutions

  1. Fix the caller so it never passes a negative device number (clamp or validate before calling setDevMinor)
  2. Check the archive integrity: regenerate the tar with a standards-compliant tool (GNU tar, bsdtar)
  3. If you do not care about device metadata, skip calling setDevMinor for device-type entries you don't reproduce
  4. Catch IllegalArgumentException around archive parsing and treat it as a corrupt-archive case

Example fix

// before
entry.setDevMinor(readDevMinorFromHeader()); // may be -1 on malformed data
// after
int devMinor = readDevMinorFromHeader();
if (devMinor >= 0) {
    entry.setDevMinor(devMinor);
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (devNo < 0) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("devNo must be >= 0, got " + devNo); }
entry.setDevMinor(devNo);

Type guard

boolean isValidDevNo(int devNo) { return devNo >= 0; }

Try / catch

try {
    entry.setDevMinor(devNo);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    // treat as corrupt/malicious archive metadata
    throw new IOException("Invalid device number in archive", e);
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling setDevMinor(-1) (or any negative int) directly, or indirectly when processPaxHeader parses a PAX header whose 'devminor' value parses to a negative number (e.g. malformed or malicious header data).

Common situations: Parsing hand-crafted, truncated, or maliciously crafted tar archives where PAX extended headers contain invalid devminor values; tools that copy file metadata from stat structures on unusual filesystems.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of MuntashirAkon/AppManager@0152f468fc (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c29219966892cb9c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at app/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/compress/archivers/tar/TarArchiveEntry.java:958

     * Get this entry's minor device number.
     *
     * @return This entry's minor device number.
     * @since 1.4
     */
    public int getDevMinor() {
        return devMinor;
    }

    /**
     * Set this entry's minor device number.
     *
     * @param devNo This entry's minor device number.
     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the devNo is &lt; 0.
     * @since 1.4
     */
    public void setDevMinor(final int devNo) {
        if (devNo < 0) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Minor device number is out of " + "range: " + devNo);
        }
        this.devMinor = devNo;
    }

    /**
     * Indicates in case of an oldgnu sparse file if an extension
     * sparse header follows.
     *
     * @return true if an extension oldgnu sparse header follows.
     */
    public boolean isExtended() {
        return isExtended;
    }

    /**
     * Get this entry's real file size in case of a sparse file.
     * <p>If the file is not a sparse file, return size instead of realSize.</p>
     *

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