What causes "Improper queue name : {nameValue}" in apache/hadoop?

Give every queue a non-empty name without ':'

apache/hadoop · error · RuntimeException

Improper queue name : {nameValue}

Error message

Improper queue name : {nameValue}

What it means

Inside a <queue>, the <name> element must be non-empty after trimming and must not contain the hierarchy separator ':' (NAME_SEPARATOR); otherwise the parser throws this RuntimeException naming the offending value. Hierarchy is expressed by nesting <queues> under a parent queue - the parser builds qualified names itself, so ':' in a name is reserved and rejected.

Source

Thrown at hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/QueueConfigurationParser.java:279

    NodeList fields = queueNode.getChildNodes();
    validate(queueNode);
    List<Element> subQueues = new ArrayList<Element>();

    String submitKey = "";
    String adminKey = "";
    
    for (int j = 0; j < fields.getLength(); j++) {
      Node fieldNode = fields.item(j);
      if (!(fieldNode instanceof Element)) {
        continue;
      }
      Element field = (Element) fieldNode;
      if (QUEUE_NAME_TAG.equals(field.getTagName())) {
        String nameValue = field.getTextContent();
        if (field.getTextContent() == null ||
          field.getTextContent().trim().equals("") ||
          field.getTextContent().contains(NAME_SEPARATOR)) {
          throw new RuntimeException("Improper queue name : " + nameValue);
        }

        if (!parent.equals("")) {
          name += parent + NAME_SEPARATOR;
        }
        //generate the complete qualified name
        //parent.child
        name += nameValue;
        newQueue.setName(name);
        submitKey = toFullPropertyName(name,
            QueueACL.SUBMIT_JOB.getAclName());
        adminKey = toFullPropertyName(name,
            QueueACL.ADMINISTER_JOBS.getAclName());
      }

      if (QUEUE_TAG.equals(field.getTagName()) && field.hasChildNodes()) {
        subQueues.add(field);
      }

View on GitHub (pinned to 2add963021)

Solutions

Give every queue a non-empty name without ':'
Express hierarchy by nesting child <queues> inside the parent <queue>
Validate names in config review: ^[A-Za-z0-9._-]+$ and no ':'

Example fix

<!-- before -->
<queue>
  <name>prod:etl</name>   <!-- ':' is the reserved separator -->
</queue>

<!-- after: nested hierarchy, simple names -->
<queue>
  <name>prod</name>
  <queues>
    <queue><name>etl</name></queue>
  </queues>
</queue>

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

static boolean isValidQueueName(String n) {
  return n != null && !n.trim().isEmpty() && !n.contains(":")
      && n.matches("[A-Za-z0-9._-]+");
}

Prevention

Reserve ':' for the parser; keep queue names to letters, digits, '.', '_', '-'
Encode hierarchy via nested <queues>, never via separators in <name>
Add a lint rule rejecting empty or separator-containing names

When it happens

Trigger: <name></name> or whitespace-only content inside a queue definition; a hand-flattened hierarchical name like <name>prod:etl</name> instead of nesting child queues.

Common situations: Operators collapsing nested queues into one name; names pasted from other schedulers' configs (which use different separators); empty <name> produced by templating.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/hadoop@2add963021 (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d3937b0e959edef5. Report an issue: GitHub.