apache/seatunnel · error · IllegalArgumentException

SNMP sink retries must not be negative

Error message

SNMP sink retries must not be negative

What it means

Validation error thrown by SnmpSinkConfig.validateTarget when the configured SNMP sink retry count is negative; part of the sink config guard clauses run at config construction before any SNMP traffic occurs.

Source

Thrown at seatunnel-connectors-v2/connector-snmp/src/main/java/org/apache/seatunnel/connectors/seatunnel/snmp/config/SnmpSinkConfig.java:69

        this.valueField = requireField(config.get(SnmpSinkOptions.VALUE_FIELD), "value_field");
        this.valueTypeField =
                requireField(config.get(SnmpSinkOptions.VALUE_TYPE_FIELD), "value_type_field");
        validateTarget();
        validateDistinctFields();
    }

    private void validateTarget() {
        if (port < 1 || port > 65535) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("SNMP sink port must be between 1 and 65535");
        }
        if (isBlank(community)) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("SNMP sink community must not be blank");
        }
        if (timeoutMillis <= 0) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("SNMP sink timeout_millis must be greater than 0");
        }
        if (retries < 0) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("SNMP sink retries must not be negative");
        }
    }

    private static String requireField(String configuredField, String optionName) {
        if (isBlank(configuredField)) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("SNMP sink " + optionName + " must not be blank");
        }
        return configuredField.trim();
    }

    private static boolean isBlank(String value) {
        return value == null || value.trim().isEmpty();
    }

    private void validateDistinctFields() {
        Set<String> fields = new HashSet<>();
        fields.add(oidField);
        fields.add(valueField);

View on GitHub (pinned to cf67b549a7)

Solutions

  1. Set retries to 0 or a positive integer (e.g. 1–3).
  2. Remove the retries line to use the default value instead of a negative sentinel.
  3. Check for arithmetic/templating that could produce a negative number.
  4. Pre-validate retries >= 0 before building the sink config.

Example fix

// before
retries = -1
// after
retries = 2
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

int retries = config.get(SnmpSinkOptions.RETRIES); if (retries < 0) throw new IllegalArgumentException("retries must be >= 0");

Try / catch

try { new SnmpSinkConfig(readonlyConfig); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { failFast("SNMP sink config invalid: " + e.getMessage()); }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: SnmpSinkConfig constructor calls validateTarget(); the RETRIES option resolves to a negative integer (e.g. -1).

Common situations: Setting retries = -1 intending 'infinite' or 'default'; sign typo in the config file; computed value from an expression going negative.

Understand the failure class

Background: "value must be between 0 and 1" / "out of range" / "must not be negative" errors: fixing range-validation failures across open-source libraries — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/seatunnel@cf67b549a7 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cf548965b529dd99. Report an issue: GitHub.