apple/pkl · error · InvalidGlobPatternException

invalidGlobUnsupportedFeature

invalidGlobUnsupportedFeature

Error message

invalidGlobUnsupportedFeature

What it means

Glob character classes do not support POSIX-style `[:...:]`, collating `[=...=]`, or class `[.Quickly.]` extensions. consumeCharacterClass throws this error when it sees `[` followed by `:`, `=`, or `.` inside a character class.

Source

Thrown at pkl-core/src/main/java/org/pkl/core/util/GlobResolver.java:119

        sb.append("^");
        i++;
      }
      case ']' -> {
        // the first `]` in a character class is verbatim and not treated as a closing delimiter.
        sb.append(']');
        i++;
      }
      case NULL ->
          throw new InvalidGlobPatternException(
              ErrorMessages.create("invalidGlobMissingCharacterClassTerminator"));
    }
    i++;
    var current = globPattern.charAt(i);
    while (current != ']') {
      if (current == '[') {
        var next = getNextChar(globPattern, i);
        if (next == ':' || next == '=' || next == '.') {
          throw new InvalidGlobPatternException(
              ErrorMessages.create("invalidGlobUnsupportedFeature"));
        }
      }
      if (current == '/') {
        throw new InvalidGlobPatternException(
            ErrorMessages.create("invalidGlobInvalidCharacterInCharacterClass", current));
      } else if (current == '\\') {
        sb.append("\\\\");
      } else {
        sb.append(current);
      }
      i++;
      if (i == globPattern.length()) {
        throw new InvalidGlobPatternException(
            ErrorMessages.create("invalidGlobMissingCharacterClassTerminator"));
      }
      current = globPattern.charAt(i);
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to f3efcbfc9b)

Solutions

1. Remove the POSIX-style class extension and enumerate the characters explicitly (e.g. `[a-zA-Z]` instead of `[[:alpha:]]`).
2. Replace with an equivalent alternation group `{a,b,c}` if supported.
3. Use a plain regex-based matcher if POSIX classes are essential.

Example fix

// before
glob = "file[[:digit:]]*.txt"
// after
glob = "file[0123456789]*.txt"

if (glob.matches(".*\\[\\[:.*\\].*")) throw new IllegalArgumentException("POSIX classes unsupported in glob: " + glob);

try { return GlobResolver.toRegexPattern(glob); } catch (InvalidGlobPatternException e) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported glob feature in: " + glob, e); }

When it happens

Trigger: Using POSIX character-class syntax like `[[:alpha:]]`, `[=e=]`, or `[.a.]` inside a glob passed to GlobResolver.toRegexString/toRegexPattern.

Common situations: Porting patterns from shell/POSIX fnmatch or find utilities that support these extensions; copying regex-flavored patterns into globs.

Related errors

• invalidGlobNestedSubpattern
• invalidGlobPattern
• invalidGlobMissingCharacterClassTerminator
• invalidGlobInvalidCharacterInCharacterClass
• invalidGlobInvalidTerminatingCharacter

AI-assisted analysis of apple/pkl@f3efcbfc9b (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8b3b08309b713ce7. Report an issue: GitHub.