apache/cassandra · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid version value

Error message

Invalid version value: ${version}; ${part} not a valid identifier

What it means

parseIdentifiers splits the pre-release/build portion of a version string on '.-' and validates each identifier against PATTERN_WORDS (alphanumeric tokens). If any segment contains disallowed characters, an IllegalArgumentException names the offending part.

Solutions

1. Sanitize the version string so each pre-release/build segment matches word characters, e.g. 'beta_1' -> 'beta1' or 'beta-1'
2. Replace illegal separators (underscores, '#', spaces) with '.' or '-' before constructing
3. Catch IllegalArgumentException and validate user-supplied versions with the same regex before passing them in

Example fix

// before
new CassandraVersion("4.0.0-beta_1");
// after
new CassandraVersion("4.0.0-beta.1");

boolean validIdentifiers(String version) {
    int plus = version.indexOf('+');
    String tail = plus >= 0 ? version.substring(plus + 1)
                : version.contains("-") ? version.substring(version.indexOf('-') + 1) : "";
    return java.util.Arrays.stream(tail.split("[.-]"))
        .allMatch(p -> p.matches("[0-9A-Za-z]+"));
}

try {
    CassandraVersion v = new CassandraVersion(version);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    // e.getMessage() names the offending identifier
    throw new ConfigurationException("Unsupported version: " + version, e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: new CassandraVersion("1.2.3-beta_1") or "1.2.3+build#7" — any pre-release/build identifier with characters outside [0-9A-Za-z] (hyphens separate tokens, dots delimit them).

Common situations: Version strings with underscores, spaces, or shell-special characters supplied in config or by CI tooling; converting from other versioning schemes (e.g. '1.2.3_beta') directly to CassandraVersion.

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid id" errors: invalid identifier format — why libraries reject IDs before lookup, and how to fix them — this error's family across 37 libraries.

Related errors

• A CounterId representation is exactly
• Illegal capacity
• Only single character delimiters supported, was
• Reader index should be non-negative, but was
• Size must be non-negative

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2ef2c2cefcbf86e1. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/utils/CassandraVersion.java:151

        String value = matcher.group(group);
        return value == null ? orElse : Integer.parseInt(value);
    }

    private CassandraVersion getFamilyLowerBound()
    {
        return patch == 0 && hotfix == NO_HOTFIX && preRelease != null && preRelease.length == 0 && build == null
               ? this
               : new CassandraVersion(major, minor, 0, NO_HOTFIX, ArrayUtils.EMPTY_STRING_ARRAY, null);
    }

    private static String[] parseIdentifiers(String version, String str)
    {
        // Drop initial - or +
        String[] parts = StringUtils.split(str, ".-");
        for (String part : parts)
        {
            if (!PATTERN_WORDS.matcher(part).matches())
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid version value: " + version + "; " + part + " not a valid identifier");
        }
        return parts;
    }

    public List<String> getPreRelease()
    {
        return preRelease != null ? Arrays.asList(preRelease) : Collections.emptyList();
    }

    public List<String> getBuild()
    {
        return build != null ? Arrays.asList(build) : Collections.emptyList();
    }

    public int compareTo(CassandraVersion other)
    {
        return compareTo(other, false);
    }

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