dgraph-io/dgraph · error

RDF or JSON file(s) location must be specified

Error message

RDF or JSON file(s) location must be specified

What it means

`dgraph live` requires a data file location via the --files (dataFiles) flag and refuses to start a load with none specified. After the schema is fetched from the Alpha, an empty opt.dataFiles triggers this plain error and aborts the run before any file scanning occurs.

Solutions

1. Pass the data file(s) with --files, e.g. `dgraph live --files data.rdf`
2. Fix the shell variable so it expands to the actual RDF/JSON path before invoking dgraph live
3. Glob multiple files: `--files "dir/*.rdf"`

Example fix

// before (no data)
dgraph live --alpha alpha:9080 --schema schema.txt
// after
dgraph live --alpha alpha:9080 --schema schema.txt --files ./data.rdf

// Validate the files argument before invoking dgraph live
if (!opts.files || opts.files.trim() === '') {
  throw new Error('dgraph live requires --files pointing to RDF/JSON data');
}

function hasDataFilesArg(opts) {
  return typeof opts.files === 'string' && opts.files.trim().length > 0;
}

try {
  await runLive(args);
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e.message).includes('RDF or JSON file(s) location must be specified')) {
    console.error('Set --files (e.g. --files data.rdf) and re-run');
  } else { throw e; }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `dgraph live` without the --files flag; passing an empty string for --files (e.g. --files "" in a script where a variable failed to expand).

Common situations: Shell scripts where $DATA_FILE is unset/empty; interactive users who only passed --schema (schema alone is not enough); CI pipelines where an artifact path variable is missing.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Cannot load into namespace %#x. It does not exist.
• No data files found in
• audience value was expected but not provided
• bulk output directory cannot be empty
• cannot force namespace %#x when provided creds are not of…

AI-assisted analysis of dgraph-io/dgraph@759e242be6 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/af88080e361ab827. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at dgraph/cmd/live/run.go:780

		err := l.processSchemaFile(ctx, opt.schemaFile, opt.key, dg)
		if err != nil {
			if err == context.Canceled {
				fmt.Printf("Interrupted while processing schema file %q\n", opt.schemaFile)
				return nil
			}
			fmt.Printf("Error while processing schema file %q: %s\n", opt.schemaFile, err)
			return err
		}
		fmt.Printf("Processed schema file %q\n\n", opt.schemaFile)
	}

	if l.schema, err = getSchema(ctx, dg, rootNsOperation); err != nil {
		fmt.Printf("Error while loading schema from alpha %s\n", err)
		return err
	}

	if opt.dataFiles == "" {
		return errors.New("RDF or JSON file(s) location must be specified")
	}

	fs := filestore.NewFileStore(opt.dataFiles)

	filesList := fs.FindDataFiles(opt.dataFiles, []string{".rdf", ".rdf.gz", ".json", ".json.gz"})
	totalFiles := len(filesList)
	if totalFiles == 0 {
		return errors.Errorf("No data files found in %s", opt.dataFiles)
	}
	fmt.Printf("Found %d data file(s) to process\n", totalFiles)

	errCh := make(chan error, totalFiles)
	for _, file := range filesList {
		file = strings.Trim(file, " \t")
		go func(file string) {
			errCh <- errors.Wrap(l.processFile(ctx, fs, file, opt.key), file)
		}(file)
	}

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