benbjohnson/litestream · error

delete percentage must be between 0 and 100

Error message

delete percentage must be between 0 and 100

What it means

The shrink command validates that the -delete-percentage flag falls within the inclusive range 0–100. A value outside that range is rejected before any database is touched. This guards against nonsensical deletion fractions that would either delete nothing meaningful or produce out-of-range row counts.

Source

Thrown at cmd/litestream-test/shrink.go:42

func (c *ShrinkCommand) Run(ctx context.Context, args []string) error {
	fs := flag.NewFlagSet("litestream-test shrink", flag.ExitOnError)
	fs.StringVar(&c.DB, "db", "", "Database path (required)")
	fs.Float64Var(&c.DeletePercentage, "delete-percentage", 50, "Percentage of data to delete (0-100)")
	fs.BoolVar(&c.Vacuum, "vacuum", false, "Run VACUUM after deletion")
	fs.BoolVar(&c.Checkpoint, "checkpoint", false, "Run checkpoint after deletion")
	fs.StringVar(&c.CheckpointMode, "checkpoint-mode", "PASSIVE", "Checkpoint mode (PASSIVE, FULL, RESTART, TRUNCATE)")
	fs.Usage = c.Usage
	if err := fs.Parse(args); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	if c.DB == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("database path required")
	}

	if c.DeletePercentage < 0 || c.DeletePercentage > 100 {
		return fmt.Errorf("delete percentage must be between 0 and 100")
	}

	if _, err := os.Stat(c.DB); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("database does not exist: %w", err)
	}

	slog.Info("Starting database shrink operation",
		"db", c.DB,
		"delete_percentage", c.DeletePercentage,
		"vacuum", c.Vacuum,
		"checkpoint", c.Checkpoint,
	)

	return c.shrinkDatabase(ctx)
}

func (c *ShrinkCommand) shrinkDatabase(ctx context.Context) error {
	initialSize, err := getDatabaseSize(c.DB)

View on GitHub (pinned to 4ed7a308f6)

Solutions

1. Pass a percentage between 0 and 100, e.g. -delete-percentage 50
2. If you meant 50%, use 50 not 0.5 (the flag expects a percentage, not a fraction)
3. Verify the computed value in any calling script is clamped to [0, 100] before invoking

Example fix

// before
litestream-test shrink -db test.db -delete-percentage 0.5
// after
litestream-test shrink -db test.db -delete-percentage 50

pct := 50.0 // compute as needed
if pct < 0 || pct > 100 {
    return fmt.Errorf("delete percentage %v out of range [0,100]", pct)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking `litestream-test shrink` with a -delete-percentage value that is negative or greater than 100, e.g. -delete-percentage 150 or -delete-percentage -5; also triggered by a script passing a malformed computed percentage.

Common situations: Users misread the flag as a fraction (passing 1.5 intending 150% of nothing, or 0.5 meaning 50%); automation computes the percentage with an off-by-one or wrong unit; typo in the value like 05 instead of 50.

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

• invalid -timestamp, must specify in ISO 8601 format (e.g. 20
• database path required
• database path required
• source database path required
• replica URL or config file required

AI-assisted analysis of benbjohnson/litestream@4ed7a308f6 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5d9bd7f7c736593f. Report an issue: GitHub.