apache/answer · error

i18n file parsing failed: %s

Error message

i18n file parsing failed: %s

What it means

After reading i18n.yaml, NewTranslator unmarshals it to extract language_options; if yaml.Unmarshal fails it returns 'i18n file parsing failed: <err>'. The file exists but is not valid YAML or has an unexpected structure.

Source

Thrown at internal/base/translator/provider.go:121

		if err = myTran.AddTranslator(content, file.Name()); err != nil {
			log.Debugf("add translator failed: %s %s", file.Name(), err)
			reportTranslatorFormatError(file.Name(), buf)
			continue
		}
	}
	GlobalTrans = myTran.GlobalTrans

	i18nFile, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(c.BundleDir, "i18n.yaml"))
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("read i18n file failed: %s", err)
	}

	s := struct {
		LangOption []*LangOption `yaml:"language_options"`
	}{}
	err = yaml.Unmarshal(i18nFile, &s)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("i18n file parsing failed: %s", err)
	}
	LanguageOptions = s.LangOption
	for _, option := range LanguageOptions {
		option.Label = fmt.Sprintf("%s (%d%%)", option.Label, option.Progress)
	}
	return GlobalTrans, err
}

// CheckLanguageIsValid check user input language is valid
func CheckLanguageIsValid(lang string) bool {
	if lang == DefaultLangOption {
		return true
	}
	for _, option := range LanguageOptions {
		if option.Value == lang {
			return true
		}
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 3b9f137061)

Solutions

1. Run the i18n.yaml through a YAML linter/parser to find the syntax error at the reported line.
2. Restore the original i18n.yaml from the upstream repository and re-apply custom changes carefully.
3. Ensure the top-level key `language_options` with proper list structure exists.
4. Check for merge-conflict markers or tabs (YAML forbids tabs for indentation).

Example fix

// before
language_options:
	- label: English
// after
language_options:
  - label: English
    value: en-US

node -e "const y=require('js-yaml');y.load(require('fs').readFileSync('i18n.yaml','utf8'));console.log('ok')"

tr, err := translator.NewTranslator(cfg)
if err != nil {
  if strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "i18n file parsing failed:") {
    log.Fatalf("i18n.yaml invalid YAML: %v", err)
  }
  return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: i18n.yaml containing syntax errors (bad indentation, tabs, unquoted special chars) or missing/renamed top-level `language_options` key that breaks the expected struct.

Common situations: Hand-edited translation manifests, merge conflicts left markers (<<<<<<<) in the yaml, custom translations contributed with wrong schema, or tooling rewriting the file incorrectly.

Related errors

• error.password.space_invalid
• read file failed: %s %s
• read i18n file failed: %s
• validate check exception
• base.request_format_error

AI-assisted analysis of apache/answer@3b9f137061 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0f4833b42bb0eecb. Report an issue: GitHub.