NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra · error · IllegalArgumentException

Unexpected parameter: {}

Error message

Unexpected parameter: {}

What it means

Thrown by doCreateDatabase() when more than one positional argument is supplied after the bsimURL. createdatabase accepts exactly one positional: the config template. Any additional positional token is treated as an unexpected parameter. The error message interpolates the offending value via params.get(1).

Source

Thrown at Ghidra/Features/BSim/src/main/java/ghidra/features/bsim/query/ingest/BSimLaunchable.java:537

	 * @param params the parameters specifying the command
	 * @throws Exception when initializing the application or executing the command
	 */
	public void run(String[] params) throws Exception {
		run(params, TaskMonitor.DUMMY);
	}

	/**
	 * Creates a new BSim database with a given set of properties.
	 * 
	 * @param params the command-line parameters
	 * @throws IOException if there's an error establishing the database connection
	 */
	private void doCreateDatabase(List<String> params) throws IOException {
		if (params.isEmpty()) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("Missing database template");
		}
		else if (params.size() > 1) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unexpected parameter: " + params.get(1));
		}

		String configTemplate = params.get(0);
		boolean noTrackCallGraph = booleanOptions.contains(NO_CALLGRAPH_OPTION);

		String nameOption = optionValueMap.get(NAME_OPTION);
		String ownerOption = optionValueMap.get(OWNER_OPTION);
		String descOption = optionValueMap.get(DESCRIPTION_OPTION);

		try (BulkSignatures bsim = getBulkSignatures()) {
			bsim.createDatabase(configTemplate, nameOption, ownerOption, descOption,
				!noTrackCallGraph);
		}
	}

	/**
	 * Drops the current BSim database.
	 * 

View on GitHub (pinned to d5f144c24d)

Solutions

1. Remove the extra positional argument; createdatabase takes only <bsimURL> <template>.
2. Check whether you meant to pass an option (e.g. --name) but forgot the leading '--'.
3. Quote arguments to prevent shell expansion from injecting extra tokens.

Example fix

// before
bsim createdatabase postgresql://myhost/BsimDB medium_64 extra_arg
// after
bsim createdatabase postgresql://myhost/BsimDB medium_64 --name "My DB"

// After readOptions, for createdatabase ensure exactly one positional
if ("createdatabase".equals(command) && positionalParams.size() != 1) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("createdatabase takes exactly one template argument");
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running 'bsim createdatabase <bsimURL> <template> <extra>'. readOptions strips options starting with '-' or '--', but bare positional tokens accumulate in subParams; if two remain after the template, line 537 fires with the second one.

Common situations: Adding a second database name by mistake; a stray file path or copy-paste artifact; shell globbing expanding to multiple tokens; passing an option without its '--' prefix so it's treated as positional.

Related errors

• Missing database template
• Unknown command: {}
• Unsupported command: {}
• Unsupported option use: {}
• Unexpected argument: {}

AI-assisted analysis of NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra@d5f144c24d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/91e0afd03399be7a. Report an issue: GitHub.