chenhg5/cc-connect · error

invalid line

Error message

invalid line

What it means

readFileContext validates its line argument before computing the read window: a line number <= 0 was supplied (callers should pass 1-based line numbers). Sentinel validation error, not a file I/O failure.

Source

Thrown at core/reference_show.go:248

		}
		if lineNo > end {
			break
		}
		if len(lines) >= maxLines {
			truncated = true
			break
		}
		lines = append(lines, scanner.Text())
	}
	if err := scanner.Err(); err != nil {
		return nil, false, err
	}
	return lines, truncated, nil
}

func readFileContext(path string, line, before, after, maxLines int) ([]string, bool, error) {
	if line <= 0 {
		return nil, false, fmt.Errorf("invalid line")
	}
	start := line - before
	if start < 1 {
		start = 1
	}
	end := line + after
	return readFileRange(path, start, end, maxLines)
}

func readDirEntries(path string, maxEntries int) ([]string, bool, error) {
	if maxEntries <= 0 {
		maxEntries = defaultShowMaxEntries
	}
	entries, err := os.ReadDir(path)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, false, err
	}
	out := make([]string, 0, minInt(len(entries), maxEntries))

View on GitHub (pinned to 4000b2338a)

Solutions

1. Use 1-based line numbers (file.go:1 for the first line)
2. Clamp or reject line < 1 in the location parser before building the reference request
3. Return a user-facing hint that lines are 1-based when parsing fails

Example fix

// before
/show file.go:0
// after
/show file.go:1

if line < 1 {
    return fmt.Errorf("lines are 1-based; got %d", line)
}

lines, _, err := readFileContext(path, line, before, after, max)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "invalid line") {
    return "line numbers start at 1", nil
}

When it happens

Trigger: renderReferenceFile calling readFileContext with a line number of 0 or negative, typically from a reference location like file.go:0 or a parser that failed to extract the line.

Common situations: User writes file.go:0 expecting 0-based indexing; a regex capture in the parser yields an empty/invalid number converted to 0; tests passing zero-value ints.

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

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AI-assisted analysis of chenhg5/cc-connect@4000b2338a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b67da0e72f19f01f. Report an issue: GitHub.