apache/pulsar · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid interval '%d'.

Error message

Invalid interval '%d'. 

What it means

The SetDeduplicationSnapshotInterval command validates that the required --interval parameter is non-negative before calling setDeduplicationSnapshotInterval. A negative value throws IllegalArgumentException with the invalid value formatted into the message; the documented valid range is 0 to Integer.MAX_VALUE.

Source

Thrown at pulsar-client-tools/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/admin/cli/CmdTopics.java:1823

        void run() throws PulsarAdminException {
            String persistentTopic = validatePersistentTopic(topicName);
            print(getTopics().getDeduplicationSnapshotInterval(persistentTopic));
        }
    }

    @Command(description = "Set deduplication snapshot interval for a topic", hidden = true)
    private class SetDeduplicationSnapshotInterval extends CliCommand {
        @Parameters(description = "persistent://tenant/namespace/topic", arity = "1")
        private String topicName;

        @Option(names = { "-i", "--interval" }, description = "Deduplication snapshot interval for topic in second, "
                + "allowed range from 0 to Integer.MAX_VALUE", required = true)
        private int interval;

        @Override
        void run() throws PulsarAdminException {
            if (interval < 0) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException(String.format("Invalid interval '%d'. ", interval));
            }

            String persistentTopic = validatePersistentTopic(topicName);
            getTopics().setDeduplicationSnapshotInterval(persistentTopic, interval);
        }
    }

    @Command(description = "Remove deduplication snapshot interval for a topic", hidden = true)
    private class RemoveDeduplicationSnapshotInterval extends CliCommand {

        @Parameters(description = "persistent://tenant/namespace/topic", arity = "1")
        private String topicName;

        @Override
        void run() throws PulsarAdminException {
            String persistentTopic = validatePersistentTopic(topicName);
            getTopics().removeDeduplicationSnapshotInterval(persistentTopic);
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 820761864e)

Solutions

1. Pass a non-negative interval, e.g. `--interval 1000` (milliseconds).
2. Use 0 to effectively disable deduplication snapshotting rather than a negative number.
3. To unset the policy entirely, use the remove-deduplication-snapshot-interval command instead of a negative value.

Example fix

// before
bin/pulsar-admin topics set-deduplication-snapshot-interval my-topic --interval -1
// after
bin/pulsar-admin topics set-deduplication-snapshot-interval my-topic --interval 1000

// validate before invoking
INTERVAL=$((INTERVAL + 0))
if [ "$INTERVAL" -lt 0 ]; then echo "interval must be >= 0"; exit 1; fi
bin/pulsar-admin topics set-deduplication-snapshot-interval "$TOPIC" --interval "$INTERVAL"

When it happens

Trigger: Running `pulsar-admin topics set-deduplication-snapshot-interval <topic> --interval -N` where N > 0.

Common situations: Deriving the interval from a config value or subtraction that goes negative; typo like `--interval -1` while intending to unset the value.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• Need to provide a persistent topic name
• Need to provide a non-persistent topic name
• Invalid message id (must be in format: ledgerId:entryId) val
• unable to parse namespaces parameter list:
• unable to parse primary parameter list:

AI-assisted analysis of apache/pulsar@820761864e (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/71fbcfb2ba90c804. Report an issue: GitHub.