apache/pulsar · error · IOException

(wraps DataFormatException from zlib inflate)

Error message

(wraps DataFormatException from zlib inflate)

What it means

CompressionCodecZLib.decode inflates a compressed payload with java.util.zip.Inflater. If the bytes are not valid zlib data (corrupt, truncated, or produced with a different algorithm), inflate() throws DataFormatException, which is wrapped in an IOException and rethrown.

Source

Thrown at pulsar-common/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/common/compression/CompressionCodecZLib.java:122

        int offset;
        if (encoded.hasArray()) {
            array = encoded.array();
            offset = encoded.arrayOffset() + encoded.readerIndex();
        } else {
            array = new byte[len];
            encoded.getBytes(encoded.readerIndex(), array);
            offset = 0;
        }

        int resultLength;
        Inflater inflater = this.inflater.get();
        inflater.reset();
        inflater.setInput(array, offset, len);

        try {
            resultLength = inflater.inflate(uncompressed.array(), uncompressed.arrayOffset(), uncompressedLength);
        } catch (DataFormatException e) {
            throw new IOException(e);
        }

        checkArgument(resultLength == uncompressedLength);

        uncompressed.writerIndex(uncompressedLength);
        return uncompressed;
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 820761864e)

Solutions

1. Verify the message was actually produced with ZLIB compression and use the matching codec to decode
2. Check disk/storage health for corruption of the underlying ledger data
3. Reproduce the data from a healthy source or skip the corrupted entries

if (compressed == null || compressed.readableBytes() < 2) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("payload too small to be zlib data");
}
int cmf = compressed.getByte(0) & 0xff;
if ((cmf & 0x0f) != 8) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("not a zlib (deflate) payload");
}

try {
    return codec.decode(compressed);
} catch (IOException e) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("Corrupt zlib payload", e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: decode() called on a buffer whose zlib header/checksum is corrupt, a payload truncated mid-stream, or a message that was compressed with a codec other than ZLib but decoded as ZLib.

Common situations: Bookkeeper/ledger corruption, manual topic data edits, reading messages written by a producer with mismatched compression settings, network/disk truncation during replication.

Related errors

• Cursor %s mark-delete position %s is ahead of the last posit
• Timeout during reset cursor
• Timeout during mark-delete operation
• Could not open configuration file
• Interrupted when connecting to zookeeper server

AI-assisted analysis of apache/pulsar@820761864e (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/35befa1e42b3d249. Report an issue: GitHub.