apache/hadoop · error · HdfsCompatIllegalArgumentException

-uri is not specified.

Error message

-uri is not specified.

What it means

HdfsCompatTool (the hadoop-compat-bench CLI) parses -uri, -suite and -output via CommandFormat; the filesystem under test comes only from the -uri value. parseArgs throws HdfsCompatIllegalArgumentException('-uri is not specified.') when the -uri option is absent or its value is empty. -suite is optional and defaults to ALL; -uri is not optional.

Source

Thrown at hadoop-tools/hadoop-compat-bench/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/compat/HdfsCompatTool.java:157

  private boolean isHelp(String[] args) {
    if ((args == null) || (args.length == 0)) {
      return true;
    }
    return (args.length == 1) && (args[0].equalsIgnoreCase("-h") ||
        args[0].equalsIgnoreCase("--help"));
  }

  private void parseArgs(String[] args) {
    CommandFormat cf = new CommandFormat(0, Integer.MAX_VALUE);
    cf.addOptionWithValue("uri");
    cf.addOptionWithValue("suite");
    cf.addOptionWithValue("output");
    cf.parse(args, 0);
    this.uri = cf.getOptValue("uri");
    this.suite = cf.getOptValue("suite");
    this.output = cf.getOptValue("output");
    if (isEmpty(this.uri)) {
      throw new HdfsCompatIllegalArgumentException("-uri is not specified.");
    }
    if (isEmpty(this.suite)) {
      this.suite = "ALL";
    }
  }

  private boolean isEmpty(final String value) {
    return (value == null) || value.isEmpty();
  }

  private void printError(String message) {
    err.println(message);
  }

  private void printOut(String message) {
    out.println(message);
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 2add963021)

Solutions

1. Pass an explicit filesystem URI: hadoop ... HdfsCompatTool -uri hdfs://namenode:8020/ -suite <suite> [-output <path>]
2. If the URI comes from a variable, guard the wrapper script so the command is not built when the variable is unset or empty
3. Confirm the URI scheme is the one you intend to test (hdfs://, webhdfs://, abfs://, ...)

Example fix

# before
hadoop jar compat-bench.jar org.apache.hadoop.fs.compat.HdfsCompatTool -suite ls
# -> -uri is not specified.

# after
hadoop jar compat-bench.jar org.apache.hadoop.fs.compat.HdfsCompatTool \
  -uri hdfs://nn.example.com:8020/ -suite ls -output hdfs://nn/compat-out

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# fail fast in wrapper scripts before the JVM starts
: "${COMPAT_URI:?-uri is required, e.g. hdfs://nn:8020/}"
hadoop jar compat-bench.jar org.apache.hadoop.fs.compat.HdfsCompatTool \
  -uri "$COMPAT_URI" -suite "${COMPAT_SUITE:-ALL}"

When it happens

Trigger: Running the compat tool without the -uri flag (e.g. 'HdfsCompatTool -suite ls'), passing -uri "" (empty value), or positioning the URI so CommandFormat.parse treats it as a positional argument instead of the option value.

Common situations: Doc examples that omit -uri; wrapper scripts that build the command from a variable and silently drop the flag when the variable is empty; confusion between -uri and a positional path argument.

Related errors

• GCS path supports only '%s' scheme, instead got '%s' from '%
• GCS bucket name cannot be empty.
• Invalid GCS bucket name '%s': bucket name must contain only
• GCS path must include non-empty object name [objectName='%s'
• Bad configuration of hadoop.security.key.provider.path at ${

AI-assisted analysis of apache/hadoop@2add963021 (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1d4cf6f28dad99f2. Report an issue: GitHub.