apache/seatunnel · error · IllegalArgumentException

Refusing write without --yes

Error message

Refusing write without --yes

What it means

After passing the write guard and counting affected rows, runWalPurgeAcked performs the actual DELETE only when --yes is set. If rows matched the cutoff but the user has not confirmed with --yes (and was not in --dry-run, which returned earlier), the command throws IllegalArgumentException instead of mutating the database.

Solutions

1. Re-run the command with --yes to authorize the deletion.
2. Run with --dry-run first to see how many ACKED rows would be deleted, then confirm with --yes.
3. In programmatic callers, set yes=true only after the operator has confirmed.

Example fix

// before
agent db wal-purge-acked --older-than-ms 86400000
// after
agent db wal-purge-acked --older-than-ms 86400000 --yes

# bash wrapper: confirm before non-dry-run purge
if [[ " $* " != *' --yes '* && " $* " != *' --dry-run '* ]]; then
  read -p "Apply wal-purge-acked? Type YES: " c && [[ $c == YES ]] && set -- "$@" --yes
fi

try {
  walPurgeAcked(cli);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().contains("--yes")) {
    log.info("Purge not applied; run again with --yes after reviewing --dry-run output");
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running wal-purge-acked with --yes omitted while at least one ACKED row matches the cutoff; programmatic invocation with a Cli options object whose isYes() is false.

Common situations: Programmatic callers constructing a Cli with dry-run=false but yes unset; users whose earlier zero-row runs never reached the write step, then hit this once rows exist.

Understand the failure class

Background: "--flag is required" and "must specify" CLI errors: how missing-required-flag validation works and how to fix it — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Write operations require --yes (or use --dry-run)
• Agent is running (pid file ); stop the agent before write…
• Cluster name is required. Please specify it using -cn or…
• cluster: is not running, Please start the cluster first.
• Dry-run is only supported via CLI

AI-assisted analysis of apache/seatunnel@cf67b549a7 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4b533735c7ed9ef9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at seatunnel-edge-agent/seatunnel-edge-agent-starter/src/main/java/org/apache/seatunnel/edge/agent/starter/command/db/EdgeAgentDbCommand.java:336

        DbWriteGuard.requireWriteAllowed(paths, cli);
        if (cli.getOlderThanMs() <= 0L) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                    "wal-purge-acked requires --older-than-ms <positive-ms>");
        }
        long cutoff = System.currentTimeMillis() - cli.getOlderThanMs();
        try (EdgeAgentDbConnection db =
                EdgeAgentDbConnection.openReadWrite(paths.getSqlitePath())) {
            long count = countAckedBefore(db, cutoff);
            if (cli.isDryRun()) {
                System.out.println(
                        "DRY-RUN: would delete "
                                + count
                                + " ACKED rows with updated_at < "
                                + cutoff);
                return;
            }
            if (!cli.isYes()) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Refusing write without --yes");
            }
            try (PreparedStatement statement =
                    db.getConnection().prepareStatement(EdgeAgentDbSql.WAL_PURGE_ACKED_BEFORE)) {
                statement.setString(1, WalRecordStatus.ACKED.name());
                statement.setLong(2, cutoff);
                int deleted = statement.executeUpdate();
                System.out.println(
                        "Deleted " + deleted + " ACKED rows (updated_at < " + cutoff + ")");
            }
        }
    }

    private long countAckedBefore(EdgeAgentDbConnection db, long cutoff) throws SQLException {
        try (PreparedStatement statement =
                db.getConnection().prepareStatement(EdgeAgentDbSql.WAL_COUNT_ACKED_BEFORE)) {
            statement.setString(1, WalRecordStatus.ACKED.name());
            statement.setLong(2, cutoff);
            try (ResultSet rs = statement.executeQuery()) {

View on GitHub (pinned to cf67b549a7)