cockroachdb/cockroach · error

could not parse query (expected PKG.TEST): %s

Error message

could not parse query (expected PKG.TEST): %s

What it means

Raised by parseQuery (testowner.go:162-169) in its github-prefixed branch. The query began with `github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/`, but strings.IndexByte found no '.' after that prefix (dotIdx == -1) or found one immediately after it (dotIdx == 0, i.e. an empty package), so the string cannot be split at the first post-prefix dot into a package and a test name. The tool signals this by panicking, so the process dies with a stack trace and non-zero exit. Both the single-argument mode (line 148) and each stdin line (line 137) run through this parse.

Source

Thrown at pkg/cmd/testowner/testowner.go:168

			writeOwners(stdout, teams)
			for _, log := range logs {
				fmt.Fprintln(stderr, log)
			}
		} else {
			fmt.Fprintf(stderr, "usage: `testowner PKG.TEST` or `testowner` (with queries in stdin); got %d arguments, expected 0-1\n", len(flag.Args()))
			return 1
		}
	}
	return 0
}

func parseQuery(pkgAndTest string) (pkg string, test string) {
	const githubPrefix = "github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/"
	var dotIdx int
	if strings.HasPrefix(pkgAndTest, githubPrefix) {
		dotIdx = strings.IndexByte(pkgAndTest[len(githubPrefix):], '.')
		if dotIdx <= 0 {
			panic(fmt.Sprintf("could not parse query (expected PKG.TEST): %s", pkgAndTest))
		}
		dotIdx += len(githubPrefix)
	} else {
		dotIdx = strings.IndexByte(pkgAndTest, '.')
		if dotIdx <= 0 {
			panic(fmt.Sprintf("could not parse query (expected PKG.TEST): %s", pkgAndTest))
		}
	}
	pkg, test = pkgAndTest[:dotIdx], pkgAndTest[dotIdx+1:]
	return
}

func writeOwners(w io.Writer, teams []team.Team) {
	var prev bool
	if len(teams) == 0 {
		panic("empty team slice")
	}
	for _, team := range teams {

View on GitHub (pinned to 8812064a01)

Solutions

1. Append the test name to form a full query: `testowner github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/cmd/dev.TestDataDriven`
2. Or use the equivalent short form without the prefix: `testowner pkg/cmd/dev.TestDataDriven`
3. If piping many queries on stdin, generate `PKG.TEST` pairs (e.g. `go test -list '.*' ./pkg/...` output joined with the package) rather than bare package paths
4. Filter out blank/whitespace-only lines before feeding stdin (a prefix-only line cannot contain the .TEST part)

Example fix

// before: package import path only, no .TEST suffix after the github prefix
$ ./testowner github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/cmd/dev
panic: could not parse query (expected PKG.TEST): github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/cmd/dev

// after: full github.com/.../PKG.TEST (or the short form)
$ ./testowner github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/cmd/dev.TestDataDriven
$ ./testowner pkg/cmd/dev.TestDataDriven

// Mirrors parseQuery (testowner.go:162-179) without panicking: split at the
// first '.' after the optional github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/ prefix.
func validateQuery(q string) error {
	const prefix = "github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/"
	s := strings.TrimPrefix(q, prefix)
	if dot := strings.IndexByte(s, '.'); dot <= 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("query must be PKG.TEST (got %q)", q)
	}
	return nil
}

If you cannot pre-validate (e.g. calling the binary), catch the panic at the process boundary: a non-zero exit with `could not parse query` on stderr means malformed input — log the offending query and continue or abort. If you reuse parseQuery in-process, wrap the call with a deferred recover: `defer func() { if r := recover(); r != nil { /* handle bad query */ } }()`.

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking `testowner github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/cmd/dev` (package import path with the .TEST part forgotten); any github-prefixed string with no '.' after the prefix, e.g. `github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/`; an empty package like `github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/.TestFoo`; feeding stdin a list of package paths (from go list ./... or editor copy) instead of PKG.TEST lines.

Common situations: Pasting a package path from go-to-definition / go list output and forgetting to append .TestName; scripts that emit import paths rather than PKG.TEST pairs; a query truncated by shell history editing or a missing test name in a generated input file.

Related errors

• error while processing file %s
• failed parsing datum string as
• cannot set both COCKROACH_FORCE_DEV_VERSION and COCKROACH_TE
• cannot have two files with the same basename in DISTDIR_FILE
• invalid trusted proxy CIDRs

AI-assisted analysis of cockroachdb/cockroach@8812064a01 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a636b766475911c1. Report an issue: GitHub.