What causes "too many entries in v0 shell alias delete record" in atuinsh/atuin?

Align atuin versions across all synced machines

too many entries in v0 shell alias delete record

Error message

too many entries in v0 shell alias delete record

What it means

A v0 shell alias 'delete' record must be a msgpack array with exactly 1 field (the alias key). The deserializer rejects the record when the decoded array length is not 1, meaning the payload deviates from the v0 alias-delete schema. This guards against corrupt or version-mismatched record data.

Source

Thrown at crates/atuin-dotfiles/src/store.rs:92

                        let (key, bytes) =
                            decode::read_str_from_slice(bytes).map_err(error_report)?;
                        let (value, bytes) =
                            decode::read_str_from_slice(bytes).map_err(error_report)?;

                        if !bytes.is_empty() {
                            bail!("trailing bytes in encoded shell alias record. malformed");
                        }

                        Ok(Self::Create(Alias {
                            name: key.to_owned(),
                            value: value.to_owned(),
                        }))
                    }

                    // delete
                    1 => {
                        let nfields = decode::read_array_len(&mut bytes).map_err(error_report)?;
                        ensure!(nfields == 1, "too many entries in v0 shell alias delete record");

                        let bytes = bytes.remaining_slice();

                        let (key, bytes) =
                            decode::read_str_from_slice(bytes).map_err(error_report)?;

                        if !bytes.is_empty() {
                            bail!("trailing bytes in encoded shell alias record. malformed");
                        }

                        Ok(Self::Delete(key.to_owned()))
                    }

                    n => {
                        bail!("unknown AliasRecord type {n}");
                    }
                }
            }

View on GitHub (pinned to c0c717ab04)

Solutions

Align atuin versions across all synced machines
Delete the malformed delete-record and re-issue the alias deletion from a current client
Re-sync the alias store from a known-good host
Check the record store SQLite DB for damaged rows

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

let n = rmp::decode::read_array_len(&mut bytes)?;
if n != 1 { return Err("malformed v0 alias delete record".into()); }

Try / catch

match AliasRecord::deserialize(&data) {
    Ok(rec) => apply(rec),
    Err(e) => log::warn!("skipping bad alias delete record: {e}"),
}

Prevention

Keep client versions in sync across machines
Re-issue deletions from a current client instead of crafting records
Never hand-edit record payloads
Validate records when importing from backups

When it happens

Trigger: Deserializing a v0 alias delete record (record_type 1) whose decoded msgpack array length differs from 1.

Common situations: Syncing records from a newer atuin version into an older client; corrupted record store payloads; manually edited database rows.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of atuinsh/atuin@c0c717ab04 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f23ebc67afbae467. Report an issue: GitHub.