crowdsecurity/crowdsec · error

loading parser dump file: %w

Error message

loading parser dump file: %w

What it means

ParserAssert.LoadTest loads a parser dump (the JSON output of a previous parser run) via dumps.LoadParserDump and wraps any failure. It indicates the .dump file is missing, unreadable, or not valid parser-dump JSON — so assertions cannot run against test data.

Source

Thrown at pkg/hubtest/parser_assert.go:65

	return ParserAssert
}

func (p *ParserAssert) AutoGenFromFile(filename string) (string, error) {
	err := p.LoadTest(filename)
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}

	ret := p.AutoGenParserAssert()

	return ret, nil
}

func (p *ParserAssert) LoadTest(filename string) error {
	parserDump, err := dumps.LoadParserDump(filename)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("loading parser dump file: %w", err)
	}

	p.TestData = parserDump

	return nil
}

func (p *ParserAssert) AssertFile(testFile string) error {
	file, err := os.Open(p.File)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.New("failed to open")
	}

	if err := p.LoadTest(testFile); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to load parser dump file '%s': %w", testFile, err)
	}

	scanner := bufio.NewScanner(file)

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

1. Verify the dump file exists at the given path (`ls <test>.dump`) and generate it by running the parser test first (cscli hubtest run).
2. Validate the dump is well-formed JSON: `jq . <test>.dump`.
3. Ensure you pass the .dump file, not the .yaml, to LoadTest/AssertFile.
4. Regenerate the dump with the current crowdsec version if it comes from an older format.

Example fix

// before
assert := hubtest.NewParserAssert("./tests/syslog-logs.yaml") // wrong file
// after
assert := hubtest.NewParserAssert("./tests/syslog-logs.dump")
if err := assert.LoadTest("./tests/syslog-logs.dump"); err != nil {
	t.Fatalf("regenerate dump first: %v", err)
}

if _, err := os.Stat(dumpFile); err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("dump %s missing; run the parser test first", dumpFile)
}
b, err := os.ReadFile(dumpFile)
if err == nil && !json.Valid(b) {
	return fmt.Errorf("dump %s is not valid JSON; regenerate it", dumpFile)
}

p := hubtest.NewParserAssert(dumpFile)
if err := p.LoadTest(dumpFile); err != nil {
	var pathErr *fs.PathError
	if errors.As(err, &pathErr) {
		// dump missing: generate it via cscli hubtest run
	}
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling AssertFile/AutoGenFromFile with a testFile whose dump file fails to load: file doesn't exist, wrong extension/path passed, JSON malformed or produced by an incompatible dump format version.

Common situations: Running assertions before generating the dump (parser never ran); hand-editing the dump and breaking JSON; pointing AssertFile at the .yaml test config instead of the .dump file; dump produced by an older crowdsec format.

Understand the failure class

Background: JSON parse error: "Unexpected token" / "not valid JSON" / "failed to parse" — what JSON parsers are really complaining about — this error's family across 45 libraries.

Related errors

• unable to load parser dump file '%s': %w
• no header in message, skipping
• no source user in header message, skipping
• unable to serialize
• ErrNucleiRunFail

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c8ae7f228fdb1f9a. Report an issue: GitHub.