benbjohnson/litestream · error

cannot specify url & path for webdav replica

Error message

cannot specify url & path for webdav replica

What it means

newWebDAVReplicaClientFromConfig rejects configs that set both the combined 'url' and the individual 'path' field for a webdav replica. The URL should encode everything; specifying path alongside it is ambiguous and fails fast at startup.

Source

Thrown at cmd/litestream/main.go:1862

	client.User = user
	client.Password = password
	client.Path = path
	client.KeyPath = c.KeyPath
	client.HostKey = c.HostKey

	// Set concurrent writes if specified, otherwise use default (true)
	if c.ConcurrentWrites != nil {
		client.ConcurrentWrites = *c.ConcurrentWrites
	}

	return client, nil
}

// newWebDAVReplicaClientFromConfig returns a new instance of webdav.ReplicaClient built from config.
func newWebDAVReplicaClientFromConfig(c *ReplicaConfig, _ *litestream.Replica) (_ *webdav.ReplicaClient, err error) {
	// Ensure URL & constituent parts are not both specified.
	if c.URL != "" && c.Path != "" {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot specify url & path for webdav replica")
	} else if c.URL != "" && c.WebDAVURL != "" {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot specify url & webdav-url for webdav replica")
	}

	webdavURL, username, password, path := c.WebDAVURL, c.WebDAVUsername, c.WebDAVPassword, c.Path

	// Apply settings from URL, if specified.
	if c.URL != "" {
		u, err := url.Parse(c.URL)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}

		// Build WebDAV URL from scheme and host
		scheme := "http"
		if u.Scheme == "webdavs" {
			scheme = "https"
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4ed7a308f6)

Solutions

1. Remove the 'path' key and keep only 'url' (put the path in the URL)
2. Or remove 'url' and configure webdav-url/username/password/path individually
3. Validate the final YAML contains exactly one of the two specification styles

Example fix

# before
- type: webdav
  url: webdavs://dav.example.com/db
  path: /db
# after
- type: webdav
  url: webdavs://dav.example.com/db

if rep.Type == "webdav" && rep.URL != "" && rep.Path != "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("webdav replica %s: url and path are mutually exclusive", rep.Name)
}

When it happens

Trigger: A webdav replica config where c.URL is non-empty and c.Path is also non-empty, e.g. url: 'webdavs://dav.example.com/db' plus path: /db.

Common situations: Upgrading an older per-field webdav config by adding a url without deleting the old path key; generated configs that always include 'path:'.

Related errors

• cannot specify url & webdav-url for webdav replica
• webdav-url required for webdav replica
• database config #%d: 'watch' can only be enabled with a dire
• database config #%d: 'meta-dir' can only be used with a dire
• database config #%d: cannot specify both 'meta-path' and 'me

AI-assisted analysis of benbjohnson/litestream@4ed7a308f6 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bb679a6c47d0f122. Report an issue: GitHub.