benbjohnson/litestream · error

invalid target size: %w

Error message

invalid target size: %w

What it means

populate parses the -target-size flag (default "100MB") with parseSize, which expects a size string like "1GB", "500MB". If the string cannot be parsed into a byte count, Run wraps the parse error as "invalid target size". This validates user-supplied size notation before any database work starts.

Source

Thrown at cmd/litestream-test/populate.go:49

	fs.StringVar(&c.DB, "db", "", "Database path (required)")
	fs.StringVar(&c.TargetSize, "target-size", "100MB", "Target database size (e.g., 1GB, 500MB)")
	fs.IntVar(&c.RowSize, "row-size", 1024, "Average row size in bytes")
	fs.IntVar(&c.BatchSize, "batch-size", 1000, "Rows per transaction")
	fs.IntVar(&c.TableCount, "table-count", 1, "Number of tables to create")
	fs.Float64Var(&c.IndexRatio, "index-ratio", 0.2, "Percentage of columns to index (0.0-1.0)")
	fs.IntVar(&c.PageSize, "page-size", 4096, "SQLite page size in bytes")
	fs.Usage = c.Usage
	if err := fs.Parse(args); err != nil {
		return err
	}

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

	targetBytes, err := parseSize(c.TargetSize)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid target size: %w", err)
	}

	slog.Info("Starting database population",
		"db", c.DB,
		"target_size", c.TargetSize,
		"row_size", c.RowSize,
		"batch_size", c.BatchSize,
		"table_count", c.TableCount,
		"page_size", c.PageSize,
	)

	if err := c.populateDatabase(ctx, targetBytes); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("populate database: %w", err)
	}

	slog.Info("Database population complete", "db", c.DB)
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4ed7a308f6)

Solutions

1. Use a plain value with a supported unit suffix, e.g. `-target-size 1GB` or `-target-size 500MB` (match the format shown in the flag help).
2. Remove thousands separators, spaces, or non-standard suffixes (GiB/KiB) from the value.
3. Check the parseSize implementation in this repo for the exact accepted units and case sensitivity if unsure.

Example fix

// before
litestream-test populate -db ./test.db -target-size 1GiB
// error: invalid target size

// after
litestream-test populate -db ./test.db -target-size 1GB

const m = /^\d+(KB|MB|GB)$/.exec(targetSize);
if (!m) throw new Error(`invalid target size "${targetSize}": use forms like 100MB or 1GB`);

function isValidSize(s) {
  return /^\d+(KB|MB|GB)$/.test(s);
}

try {
  await run("litestream-test", ["populate", "-db", dbPath, "-target-size", targetSize]);
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e).includes("invalid target size")) {
    console.error(`"${targetSize}" is not parseable; use <number><KB|MB|GB>, e.g. 500MB`);
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing `-target-size` values parseSize cannot handle: plain numbers without a unit suffix, misspelled units ("1gb" if case-sensitive, "1 GiB", "1G B"), negative values, or empty strings.

Common situations: Users writing "1GiB" or "1 Gb" instead of the accepted format; locale-formatted numbers ("1,5GB"); shell quoting issues splitting the value from the flag.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

Related errors

• flag %q must be positioned before DB_PATH and REPLICA_URL ar
• config file not found
• invalid -timestamp, must specify in ISO 8601 format (e.g. 20
• database path required
• database does not exist: %w

AI-assisted analysis of benbjohnson/litestream@4ed7a308f6 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7427ec71ab09df9f. Report an issue: GitHub.