What causes "unknown entry type '%s' in %s (supported: %s): %s" in crowdsecurity/crowdsec?

Change the line's "type" to one of the supported values listed in the error message (strings.Join(validMapEntryTypes, ", ")).

crowdsecurity/crowdsec · error

unknown entry type '%s' in %s (supported: %s): %s

Error message

unknown entry type '%s' in %s (supported: %s): %s

What it means

fileMapInit validates the 'type' value against validMapEntryTypes and rejects anything else. This error is thrown when the JSON line's 'type' is non-empty but not one of the supported entry types, so the map entry cannot be routed to the right lookup structure.

Source

Thrown at pkg/exprhelpers/filemap.go:64

	if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(line), &record); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to parse JSON line in %s: %w", filename, err)
	}

	if record["pattern"] == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("missing mandatory 'pattern' field in %s: %s", filename, line)
	}

	if record["tag"] == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("missing mandatory 'tag' field in %s: %s", filename, line)
	}

	entryType := record["type"]
	if entryType == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("missing mandatory 'type' field in %s: %s", filename, line)
	}

	if !slices.Contains(validMapEntryTypes, entryType) {
		return fmt.Errorf("unknown entry type '%s' in %s (supported: %s): %s",
			entryType, filename, strings.Join(validMapEntryTypes, ", "), line)
	}

	if entryType == "regex" {
		if _, err := regexp.Compile(record["pattern"]); err != nil {
			log.Warningf("invalid regex pattern in %s: %s", filename, err)
		}
	}

	if dataFileMap[filename] == nil {
		dataFileMap[filename] = &fileMapEntry{filename: filename}
	}

	dataFileMap[filename].rows = append(dataFileMap[filename].rows, record)

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

Change the line's "type" to one of the supported values listed in the error message (strings.Join(validMapEntryTypes, ", ")).
Fix casing/typos: the comparison is exact and case-sensitive (e.g. "ip", not "IP" or "Ip").
If the entry semantically means an address block, use "range" rather than invented types like "cidr" or "subnet".
Refresh the data file from its official hub source if it follows a foreign schema.

Example fix

// before
{"pattern":"10.0.0.0/8","tag":"private","type":"cidr"}
// after
{"pattern":"10.0.0.0/8","tag":"private","type":"range"}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

validTypes := []string{"ip", "range", "string", "regex", "url"} // see validMapEntryTypes
if !slices.Contains(validTypes, entryType) {
	return fmt.Errorf("type %q unsupported", entryType)
}

Prevention

Copy type names exactly from the error message's supported list — they are case-sensitive
Avoid inventing aliases like "cidr"; map them to the supported value at generation time
Validate types in the script that generates the data file

When it happens

Trigger: Calling FileInit (via fileMapInit) on a filemap line with e.g. "type":"IP" (wrong case) or "type":"cidr" instead of a supported value like ip/range/string/regex.

Common situations: Typos or wrong casing in hand-written data files; authors guessing type names instead of consulting the supported list; data files written for a different tool or an older crowdsec version with different type names.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/74484f4069213286. Report an issue: GitHub.