elastic/elasticsearch · error · IllegalArgumentException

Output file not specified

Error message

Output file not specified

What it means

Thrown by ExtractCurrentVersionsTask.executeTask when the --output-file option was not provided. The task collects version/tag information into a list and writes it to outputFile; with outputFile == null the write target is unknown and the task aborts before doing any extraction work.

Source

Thrown at build-tools-internal/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gradle/internal/release/ExtractCurrentVersionsTask.java:50

public abstract class ExtractCurrentVersionsTask extends AbstractVersionsTask {
    private static final Logger LOGGER = Logging.getLogger(ExtractCurrentVersionsTask.class);

    private Path outputFile;

    @Inject
    public ExtractCurrentVersionsTask(BuildLayout layout) {
        super(layout);
    }

    @Option(option = "output-file", description = "File to output tag information to")
    public void outputFile(String file) {
        this.outputFile = Path.of(file);
    }

    @TaskAction
    public void executeTask() throws IOException {
        if (outputFile == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Output file not specified");
        }

        LOGGER.lifecycle("Extracting latest version information");

        List<String> output = new ArrayList<>();

        int indexVersion = readLatestVersion(rootDir.resolve(INDEX_VERSIONS_FILE_PATH));
        LOGGER.lifecycle("Index version: {}", indexVersion);
        output.add(INDEX_VERSION_TYPE + ":" + indexVersion);

        LOGGER.lifecycle("Writing version information to {}", outputFile);
        Files.write(outputFile, output, StandardOpenOption.CREATE, StandardOpenOption.WRITE, StandardOpenOption.TRUNCATE_EXISTING);
    }

    static class FieldIdExtractor implements Consumer<FieldDeclaration> {
        private Integer highestVersionId;

        Integer highestVersionId() {

View on GitHub (pinned to db6a809a66)

Solutions

1. Add --output-file <path> to the invocation (e.g. ./gradlew extractCurrentVersions --output-file /tmp/versions.txt).
2. Ensure the parent directory of the chosen output path exists/writable.
3. Update release automation to always supply --output-file.

Example fix

// before
./gradlew extractCurrentVersions
// after
./gradlew extractCurrentVersions --output-file build/versions.txt

if (outputFile == null) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("--output-file is required for extractCurrentVersions");
}

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking extractCurrentVersions without --output-file. executeTask checks `if (outputFile == null)` immediately and throws IllegalArgumentException.

Common situations: Running the extraction task manually and forgetting the flag; a consuming release script changed and no longer passes --output-file; invoking via a wrapper that conditionally sets the output path.

Related errors

• Invalid tag format [{l}]
• 'branch' not specified.
• Cannot use a commit SHA ({branchRef}) as --branch when fetch
• No version ids found in {javaVersionsFile}
• Invalid version format: '{s}'. Should be {pattern}

AI-assisted analysis of elastic/elasticsearch@db6a809a66 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8800dc965dcdb8b1. Report an issue: GitHub.