What causes "Invalid negative or null " in apache/cassandra?

Set chunk_length_in_kb to a positive value, e.g. 4, 16, 32, or 64

apache/cassandra · error · ConfigurationException

Invalid negative or null

Error message

Invalid negative or null

What it means

CompressionParams.validate rejects a chunk length that is zero or negative. chunkLength is stored in bytes after parsing; a non-positive value would break chunked reading/writing of compressed sstables.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/schema/CompressionParams.java:463

     * Removes the {@code enabled} option from the specified options.
     *
     * @param options the options
     * @return the value of the {@code enabled} option
     */
    private static boolean removeEnabled(Map<String, String> options)
    {
        String enabled = options.remove(ENABLED);
        return enabled == null || Boolean.parseBoolean(enabled);
    }

    // chunkLength must be a power of 2 because we assume so when
    // computing the chunk number from an uncompressed file offset (see
    // CompressedRandomAccessReader.decompresseChunk())
    public void validate() throws ConfigurationException
    {
        // if chunk length was not set (chunkLength == null), this is fine, default will be used
        if (chunkLength <= 0)
            throw new ConfigurationException("Invalid negative or null " + CHUNK_LENGTH_IN_KB);

        if ((chunkLength & (chunkLength - 1)) != 0)
            throw new ConfigurationException(CHUNK_LENGTH_IN_KB + " must be a power of 2");

        if (maxCompressedLength < 0)
            throw new ConfigurationException("Invalid negative " + MIN_COMPRESS_RATIO);

        if (maxCompressedLength > chunkLength && maxCompressedLength < Integer.MAX_VALUE)
            throw new ConfigurationException(MIN_COMPRESS_RATIO + " can either be 0 or greater than or equal to 1");
    }

    public Map<String, String> asMap()
    {
        if (!isEnabled())
            return Collections.singletonMap(ENABLED, "false");

        Map<String, String> options = new HashMap<>(otherOptions);
        // Use the one saved in the registry, we don't want to save the name of the service provider compressor here!

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

Set chunk_length_in_kb to a positive value, e.g. 4, 16, 32, or 64
Remove chunk_length_in_kb from the compression map to accept the default
Fix templating code so the default constant is not 0

Example fix

// before
{'class': 'LZ4Compressor', 'chunk_length_in_kb': '0'}
// after
{'class': 'LZ4Compressor', 'chunk_length_in_kb': '16'}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (kb <= 0) throw new IllegalArgumentException("chunk_length_in_kb must be positive, got: " + kb);

Try / catch

try { params.validate(); } catch (ConfigurationException e) { log.error("invalid compression params", e); }

Prevention

Never template chunk_length_in_kb with a default of 0
Omit the key to use the default instead of forcing 0
Validate compression maps in CI before applying schema changes

When it happens

Trigger: Calling validate (via setCompressionParameters or fromMap) with chunk_length_in_kb resolving to <= 0 bytes. Note: absent chunk length is fine (default used); only explicitly parsed non-positive values trigger this.

Common situations: Passing '0' or a negative number for chunk_length_in_kb in a CREATE/ALTER TABLE compression map, often by templating with a computed default of 0.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c9babdce79c38ac8. Report an issue: GitHub.