apache/iceberg · error · IllegalArgumentException

Unsupported compression codec:

Error message

Unsupported compression codec: 

What it means

ORC.DrwBuilder/compressionKind converts the user-supplied write.property value for compression into ORC's CompressionKind enum via valueOf on the uppercased string. If the string is not a valid ORC CompressionKind name (e.g. zstd on a build without zstd, or a typo like 'snappy ' or 'gzip2'), IllegalArgumentException is thrown with this message.

Solutions

1. Use a valid ORC codec name: ZSTD, LZ4, LZO, SNAPPY, ZLIB, GZIP, or NONE
2. Check the installed ORC library version supports the codec (e.g. ZSTD requires ORC with zstd support)
3. Remove the write.orc.compression-codec property to use the ORC default
4. Trim whitespace/typos in the property value

Example fix

// before
table.updateProperties().set("write.orc.compression-codec", "BROTLI").commit();
// after
table.updateProperties().set("write.orc.compression-codec", "ZSTD").commit();

Set<String> valid = Set.of("ZSTD","ZLIB","SNAPPY","LZO","LZ4","GZIP","NONE");
String codec = props.getProperty("write.orc.compression-codec", "").toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT).trim();
if (!valid.contains(codec)) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid ORC codec: " + codec);

try {
  writer = ORC.write(output).set("write.orc.compression-codec", codec).build();
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().contains("Unsupported compression codec")) {
    log.warn("Falling back to default ORC compression: {}", e.getMessage());
    writer = ORC.write(output).build();
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Setting write.orc.compression-codec (or the builder's configValue) to a string that is not exactly one of ORC's CompressionKind enum names after uppercasing: NOT ZSTD, ZLIB, SNAPPY, LZO, LZ4, NONE, GZIP.

Common situations: Typo in table property (e.g. 'ZSTD_1', 'snappy-compression'); using a codec like ZSTD on an older ORC library that lacks it; copying Parquet codec names (e.g. 'BROTLI', 'GZIP_LEVEL') into ORC properties.

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

• Unsupported compression strategy:
• Ignoring invalid metrics mode
• Unknown file content:
• Unsupported compression codec
• Batch reading is not supported in non-vectorized reader

AI-assisted analysis of apache/iceberg@86d9c8fc54 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a6110c8060210115. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at orc/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/orc/ORC.java:381

            strategyAsString != null
                ? toCompressionStrategy(strategyAsString)
                : dataContext.compressionStrategy();

        return new Context(
            stripeSize,
            blockSize,
            vectorizedRowBatchSize,
            compressionKind,
            compressionStrategy,
            dataContext.bloomFilterColumns(),
            dataContext.bloomFilterFpp());
      }

      private static CompressionKind toCompressionKind(String codecAsString) {
        try {
          return CompressionKind.valueOf(codecAsString.toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT));
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported compression codec: " + codecAsString);
        }
      }

      private static CompressionStrategy toCompressionStrategy(String strategyAsString) {
        try {
          return CompressionStrategy.valueOf(strategyAsString.toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT));
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException(
              "Unsupported compression strategy: " + strategyAsString);
        }
      }
    }
  }

  public static DataWriteBuilder writeData(OutputFile file) {
    return new DataWriteBuilder(file);
  }

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