crowdsecurity/crowdsec · error

invalid VictoriaLogs URL %q: %w

Error message

invalid VictoriaLogs URL %q: %w

What it means

updateURI rewrites the stored query URI to shift the start time for the next VictoriaLogs query range request. It first calls url.Parse on the configured URI; if the URI is malformed the parse error is wrapped with "invalid VictoriaLogs URL". Normally the URI was already validated at configuration time, so hitting this indicates a corrupted or hand-edited URI.

Source

Thrown at pkg/acquisition/modules/victorialogs/internal/vlclient/vl_client.go:55

	URL     string
	Prefix  string
	Query   string
	Headers map[string]string

	Username string
	Password string

	Since time.Duration

	FailMaxDuration time.Duration

	Limit int
}

func updateURI(uri string, newStart time.Time) (string, error) {
	u, err := url.Parse(uri)
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("invalid VictoriaLogs URL %q: %w", uri, err)
	}

	queryParams := u.Query()

	if !newStart.IsZero() {
		// +1 the last timestamp to avoid getting the same result again.
		updatedStart := newStart.Add(1 * time.Nanosecond)
		queryParams.Set("start", updatedStart.Format(time.RFC3339Nano))
	}

	u.RawQuery = queryParams.Encode()

	return u.String(), nil
}

func (lc *VLClient) SetTomb(t *tomb.Tomb) {
	lc.t = t
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

1. Fix the URL in the DSN/acquis.yaml so it is a valid absolute URL (scheme://host[:port][/path])
2. Percent-encode spaces and special characters (e.g. %20) or remove them
3. Validate the URL with a quick `url.Parse` snippet or any URL validator before deploying
4. Re-run cscli/crowdsec config validation to catch it at load time

Example fix

// before
url: victorialogs+http://127.0.0.1:8428/my path/
// after
url: victorialogs+http://127.0.0.1:8428/my%20path/

try { new URL(uri.replace(/^victorialogs\+/, "")) } catch (e) {
  throw new Error(`invalid VictoriaLogs URL: ${uri}`)
}

try {
  await startAcquisition(cfg)
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e).includes("invalid VictoriaLogs URL")) {
    log.error("Fix the URL in acquis.yaml:", e.message)
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: doQueryRange calls updateURI with a URI that url.Parse rejects — e.g. a DSN base URL with invalid characters (unescaped spaces, stray control characters) or a malformed scheme/colon placement.

Common situations: Misconfigured URL in acquis.yaml containing spaces or invalid characters, proxy URLs pasted with surrounding whitespace, or unusual characters that need percent-encoding.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid URL" errors: why new URL(), URI.parse, and reqwest::Url reject your string — missing scheme, whitespace, and bad path format — this error's family across 39 libraries.

Related errors

• invalid Loki URL %q: %w
• while parsing dsn '%s': %w
• invalid DSN %s for VictoriaLogs source, must start with vict
• failed to parse DSN parameters: %w
• query is mandatory (at least start_date and end_date or back

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d709e8335cd1266a. Report an issue: GitHub.