apache/pulsar · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid string to parse WorkerInfo : ${str}

Error message

Invalid string to parse WorkerInfo : ${str}

What it means

WorkerInfo.parseFrom splits a 'workerId:hostname:port' string on ':' and throws IllegalArgumentException if the string does not have exactly 3 tokens. It is a strict format parser for worker identification strings used by the functions worker metadata.

Source

Thrown at pulsar-client-admin-api/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/common/functions/WorkerInfo.java:48

 */
@Getter
@AllArgsConstructor(access = AccessLevel.PRIVATE)
@NoArgsConstructor
@ToString
@CustomLog
public class WorkerInfo {
    private String workerId;
    private String workerHostname;
    private int port;

    public static WorkerInfo of(String workerId, String workerHostname, int port) {
        return new WorkerInfo(workerId, workerHostname, port);
    }

    public static WorkerInfo parseFrom(String str) {
        String[] tokens = str.split(":");
        if (tokens.length != 3) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid string to parse WorkerInfo : " + str);
        }

        String workerId = tokens[0];
        String workerHostname = tokens[1];
        try {
            int port = Integer.parseInt(tokens[2]);

            return new WorkerInfo(workerId, workerHostname, port);
        } catch (NumberFormatException nfe) {
            log.warn().attr("workerInfo", str).log("Invalid worker info");
            throw nfe;
        }
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 820761864e)

Solutions

1. Ensure the input string is exactly workerId:hostname:port with no extra or missing colons
2. Pre-validate with str.split(":").length == 3 before calling parseFrom
3. For IPv6 hosts, use a bracketed form or a different serialization that avoids ':' ambiguity
4. If reading stored metadata, check which component/version wrote it and re-serialize in the expected format

Example fix

// before
WorkerInfo info = WorkerInfo.parseFrom(config.getWorkerString());
// after
String s = config.getWorkerString();
if (s == null || s.split(":").length != 3) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Expected workerId:hostname:port, got: " + s);
}
WorkerInfo info = WorkerInfo.parseFrom(s);

boolean isParseableWorkerInfo(String s) {
    return s != null && s.split(":", -1).length == 3;
}

try {
    WorkerInfo info = WorkerInfo.parseFrom(str);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    logger.error("Bad WorkerInfo string '{}': {}", str, e.getMessage());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling WorkerInfo.parseFrom(str) with a string that doesn't contain exactly two ':' separators, e.g. an empty string, a hostname containing ':' (IPv6), or a malformed/legacy serialization.

Common situations: Storing worker info in config files or ZooKeeper metadata with a wrong format, IPv6 hostnames adding extra colons, copy-paste errors with whitespace, or reading a value written by a different serialization format.

Related errors

• Invalid txnId key:
• Invalid value %s for the position. Allowed values are [lates
• Invalid topic domain: '${value}'
• Invalid format for fully qualified instance name:
• Positions must not be null

AI-assisted analysis of apache/pulsar@820761864e (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c7cd6182018f71b8. Report an issue: GitHub.