NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra · error · IllegalArgumentException

host required

Error message

host required

What it means

Thrown by the BSimServerInfo(DBType, ...) constructor when dbType is postgres or elastic but the host argument is empty. Both network-backed database types require a reachable hostname; a missing host makes the server descriptor meaningless. Throws IllegalArgumentException.

Source

Thrown at Ghidra/Features/BSim/src/main/java/ghidra/features/bsim/query/BSimServerInfo.java:84

	/**
	 * Construct a new {@link BSimServerInfo} object
	 * 
	 * @param dbType BSim DB type
	 * @param userinfo connection user info, {@code username[:password]}  (ignored for {@link DBType#file}).  
	 *   If blank, {@link ClientUtil#getUserName()} is used.
	 * @param host host name (ignored for {@link DBType#file})
	 * @param port port number (ignored for {@link DBType#file}, -1 for default)
	 * @param dbName name of database (simple database name except for {@link DBType#file}
	 * which should reflect an absolute file path.  On Windows OS the path may start with a
	 * drive letter.
	 * @throws IllegalArgumentException if invalid arguments are specified
	 */
	public BSimServerInfo(DBType dbType, String userinfo, String host, int port, String dbName) {
		Objects.requireNonNull(dbType, "DBType must be specified");
		this.dbType = dbType;

		if ((dbType == DBType.postgres || dbType == DBType.elastic) && StringUtils.isEmpty(host)) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("host required");
		}

		dbName = dbName.trim();
		if (StringUtils.isEmpty(dbName)) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("Non-empty dbName required");
		}

		if (dbType == DBType.file) {
			host = null;
			port = -1;
			userinfo = null;
			dbName = cleanupFilename(dbName);
		}
		else {
			if (dbName.contains("/") || dbName.contains("\\")) { // may want additional validation
				throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid " + dbType + " dbName: " + dbName);
			}
			userinfo = cleanupUserInfo(userinfo);

View on GitHub (pinned to d5f144c24d)

Solutions

1. Supply a non-empty host string for postgres/elastic DBTypes.
2. Validate that the host is set before constructing BSimServerInfo.
3. If the database is local, use 'localhost' rather than an empty string.

Example fix

// before
new BSimServerInfo(DBType.postgres, null, hostFromConfig, 5432, "bsim"); // hostFromConfig == ""
// after
String host = StringUtils.defaultIfBlank(hostFromConfig, "localhost");
new BSimServerInfo(DBType.postgres, null, host, 5432, "bsim");

if ((type == BSimServerInfo.DBType.postgres || type == BSimServerInfo.DBType.elastic) && StringUtils.isEmpty(host)) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("host is required for " + type + " databases");
}

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing 'new BSimServerInfo(DBType.postgres, null, "", 5432, "mydb")' or any call passing a null/blank host for a postgres or elastic DBType.

Common situations: Programmatic construction with a host variable that resolved to empty (e.g., unset config value); building a BSimServerInfo from incomplete parsed input.

Related errors

• Non-empty dbName required
• Invalid {} dbName: {}
• Remote file URL not supported: {}
• Unsupported BSim URL protocol: {}
• Missing dbName in URL: {}

AI-assisted analysis of NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra@d5f144c24d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5bb254e0ee08bcd8. Report an issue: GitHub.