apache/hadoop · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid parameter value: destination = "{str}" is not an abs

Error message

Invalid parameter value: destination = "{str}" is not an absolute path.

What it means

DestinationParam validates the 'destination' query parameter carried by WebHDFS RENAME (and symlink-style) PUT requests. The validate() method at DestinationParam.java:30-43 treats null or "" as absent, but any non-empty value that does not start with Path.SEPARATOR ('/') is rejected with this IllegalArgumentException (HTTP 400). The value is then normalized via new Path(str).toUri().getPath(), so the library insists on fully-qualified absolute HDFS paths.

Source

Thrown at hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/web/resources/DestinationParam.java:36

package org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.web.resources;

import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;

/** Destination path parameter. */
public class DestinationParam extends StringParam {
  /** Parameter name. */
  public static final String NAME = "destination";
  /** Default parameter value. */
  public static final String DEFAULT = "";

  private static final Domain DOMAIN = new Domain(NAME, null);

  private static String validate(final String str) {
    if (str == null || str.equals(DEFAULT)) {
      return null;
    }
    if (!str.startsWith(Path.SEPARATOR)) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid parameter value: " + NAME
          + " = \"" + str + "\" is not an absolute path.");
    }
    return new Path(str).toUri().getPath();
  }

  /**
   * Constructor.
   * @param str a string representation of the parameter value.
   */
  public DestinationParam(final String str) {
    super(DOMAIN, validate(str));
  }

  @Override
  public String getName() {
    return NAME;
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2add963021)

Solutions

1. Prefix the destination with '/' so it is absolute from the HDFS root, e.g. destination=/dir2/newname.
2. Build the parameter from a qualified Path: path.makeQualified(fs.getUri(), fs.getWorkingDirectory()).toUri().getPath().
3. Use FileSystem.rename() via the webhdfs:// client, which constructs DestinationParam for you.
4. URL-encode the destination after making it absolute (spaces, '%', etc.).

Example fix

// before
String dest = newPathName;                 // e.g. "dir2/newname"
String url = base + "?op=RENAME&destination=" + dest;
// after
String dest = "/" + rootDir + "/" + newPathName;  // "/data/dir2/newname"
String url = base + "?op=RENAME&destination=" + URLEncoder.encode(dest, "UTF-8");

static String checkedDestination(String root, String dest) {
  Path p = new Path(root, dest).makeQualified(new Path(root).toUri(), new Path("/"));
  String abs = p.toUri().getPath();
  if (!abs.startsWith("/")) throw new IllegalArgumentException("destination must be absolute: " + abs);
  return abs;
}

static boolean isAbsoluteHdfsPath(String s) { return s != null && !s.isEmpty() && s.startsWith("/"); }

try {
  fs.rename(src, new Path(root, name));   // webhdfs client builds DestinationParam
} catch (IOException e) {
  if (e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().contains("is not an absolute path")) {
    // recompute destination as absolute and retry once
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: PUT ?op=RENAME&destination=dir2/newname (relative path, no leading '/'); destination built from a bare filename such as destination=file2.txt; destination containing a URL-encoded relative path after decode; sending destination= (empty is OK, it becomes null) but destination=. or destination=.. fails.

Common situations: Building the destination from Path.getFileName() or a relative Path.toString() instead of the full path; scripts that join path segments without a leading separator; porting code from a FileSystem.rename(src, dst) call where dst was relative to the working directory (WebHDFS has no working-directory context for the parameter).

Related errors

• The source {} and destination {} are the same
• rename destination cannot be the root
• Rename destination {} is a directory or file under source {}
• {str} is not a valid DELETE operation.
• {str} is not a valid GET operation.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/hadoop@2add963021 (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6c281b0945752d46. Report an issue: GitHub.