SonarSource/sonarqube · error · MessageException

Unsupported value for property

Error message

Unsupported value for property %s: %s

What it means

Thrown by Log4JPropertiesBuilder.createRollingPolicy when the `sonar.log.rollingPolicy` property does not match any of the supported values: `time:<pattern>`, `size:<maxSize>`, or `none`. The builder parses this property to construct a logback-style rolling policy for the process log, and any unrecognized string is a fatal configuration error that aborts process startup.

Solutions

1. Set sonar.log.rollingPolicy to one of: `none`, `time:yyyy-MM-dd` (or another pattern), or `size:15MB` (or another size).
2. Remove the property entirely to fall back to the default rolling behavior.
3. Check for typos and correct the `time:` / `size:` prefix including the colon.
4. If you intended rotation by size, also set sonar.log.maxFiles to control retention.

Example fix

// before (sonar.properties)
sonar.log.rollingPolicy=daily
// after
sonar.log.rollingPolicy=time:yyyy-MM-dd

String p = System.getProperty("sonar.log.rollingPolicy", props.getProperty("sonar.log.rollingPolicy", "none"));
if (!("none".equals(p) || p.startsWith("time:") || p.startsWith("size:"))) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("sonar.log.rollingPolicy must be none, time:<pattern> or size:<size>, got: " + p);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Setting sonar.log.rollingPolicy in sonar.properties to anything other than `time:...`, `size:...`, or `none` (e.g. a typo like `size` without prefix, `daily`, or `time` with no pattern).

Common situations: Hand-edited sonar.properties copied from outdated documentation; upgrades where a previously tolerated value was removed; copy-paste from other products' log rotation configs.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• Unsupported value for property
• Fail to load the Logback configuration:
• log level in property is not a supported value (allowed…
• Logback configuration not found in classloader:
• Address in property is not a valid address

AI-assisted analysis of SonarSource/sonarqube@184c821202 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ff32f6f09b0b2add. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at server/sonar-process/src/main/java/org/sonar/process/logging/Log4JPropertiesBuilder.java:167

    writeConsoleAppender(appenderName, logPattern, jsonOutput);
    putProperty(ROOT_LOGGER_NAME + ".appenderRef." + appenderName + ".ref", appenderName);
  }

  private RollingPolicy createRollingPolicy(File logDir, String filenamePrefix) {
    String rollingPolicy = props.value(LOG_ROLLING_POLICY.getKey(), "time:yyyy-MM-dd");
    int maxFiles = props.valueAsInt(LOG_MAX_FILES.getKey(), 7);
    if (maxFiles <= 0) {
      maxFiles = UNLIMITED_MAX_FILES;
    }

    if (rollingPolicy.startsWith("time:")) {
      return new TimeRollingPolicy(filenamePrefix, logDir, maxFiles, StringUtils.substringAfter(rollingPolicy, "time:"));
    } else if (rollingPolicy.startsWith("size:")) {
      return new SizeRollingPolicy(filenamePrefix, logDir, maxFiles, StringUtils.substringAfter(rollingPolicy, "size:"));
    } else if ("none".equals(rollingPolicy)) {
      return new NoRollingPolicy(filenamePrefix, logDir);
    } else {
      throw new MessageException(format("Unsupported value for property %s: %s", LOG_ROLLING_POLICY.getKey(), rollingPolicy));
    }
  }

  private void applyLogLevelConfiguration(LogLevelConfig logLevelConfig) {
    if (!ROOT_LOGGER_NAME.equals(logLevelConfig.getRootLoggerName())) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Value of LogLevelConfig#rootLoggerName must be \"" + ROOT_LOGGER_NAME + "\"");
    }

    Level propertyValueAsLevel = getPropertyValueAsLevel(props, LOG_LEVEL.getKey());
    boolean traceGloballyEnabled = propertyValueAsLevel == Level.TRACE;

    List<String> loggerNames = Stream.of(
      logLevelConfig.getConfiguredByProperties().keySet().stream(),
      logLevelConfig.getConfiguredByHardcodedLevel().keySet().stream(),
      logLevelConfig.getOffUnlessTrace().stream().filter(k -> !traceGloballyEnabled))
      .flatMap(s -> s)
      .filter(loggerName -> !ROOT_LOGGER_NAME.equals(loggerName))
      .distinct()

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