NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra · error · IllegalArgumentException

name cannot be null

Error message

name cannot be null

What it means

Thrown by TraceEquateManager.validateName: an equate name must be a non-null, non-empty, whitespace-free string. A null name is the first failure point and is rejected before emptiness or whitespace checks. Equates name scalar constants, so an absent name has no meaning.

Source

Thrown at Ghidra/Debug/Framework-TraceModeling/src/main/java/ghidra/trace/model/symbol/TraceEquateManager.java:33

 */
package ghidra.trace.model.symbol;

import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

import ghidra.program.model.address.AddressSpace;
import ghidra.trace.model.stack.TraceStackFrame;
import ghidra.trace.model.thread.TraceThread;
import ghidra.util.exception.DuplicateNameException;

/**
 * TODO: Document me
 */
public interface TraceEquateManager extends TraceEquateOperations {
	static void validateName(String name) throws IllegalArgumentException {
		if (name == null) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("name cannot be null");
		}
		if (name.length() == 0) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("name cannot be empty string");
		}
		Pattern whitespace = Pattern.compile("\\s+");
		Matcher matcher = whitespace.matcher(name);
		if (matcher.find()) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("name cannot contain whitespace");
		}
	}

	TraceEquateSpace getEquateSpace(AddressSpace space, boolean createIfAbsent);

	TraceEquateSpace getEquateRegisterSpace(TraceThread thread, boolean createIfAbsent);

	TraceEquateSpace getEquateRegisterSpace(TraceStackFrame frame, boolean createIfAbsent);

	TraceEquate create(String name, long value)

View on GitHub (pinned to d5f144c24d)

Solutions

1. Supply a non-null name (typically the constant's textual form, e.g. "0x10" or "MAX_INT").
2. Null-check at the source: if (name == null) return/skip; do not forward null into create.
3. Default to a derived name when none is provided.

Example fix

// before
equateMgr.create(equateName /* null */, value);

// after
String name = equateName != null ? equateName : "0x" + Long.toHexString(value);
equateMgr.create(name, value);

TraceEquateManager.validateName(name); // throws early, or:
if (name == null) { name = "0x" + Long.toHexString(value); }
equateMgr.create(name, value);

static boolean validName(String name) { return name != null && !name.isEmpty() && !name.matches(".*\\s.*"); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling TraceEquateManager.create(name, value), addEquateReference, or any operation that validates a name with name == null.

Common situations: Uninitialized name fields; a lookup/import that returns null when an equate is absent and that null is forwarded into a create call; UI text field left empty returning null.

Related errors

• name cannot be empty string
• name cannot contain whitespace
• operandIndex
• Memory addresses cannot be associated with a thread
• Given namespace is not in this trace

AI-assisted analysis of NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra@d5f144c24d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b036f08bf603ddb0. Report an issue: GitHub.