glanceapp/glance · error

unknown command: %s

Error message

unknown command: %s

What it means

Returned by the CLI arg parser in internal/glance/cli.go when the positional arguments after flag parsing do not match any known subcommand (config:validate, config:print, sensors:print, diagnose, mountpoint:info variants) and are not a single file path (serve intent). The error message joins all remaining args with spaces, e.g. `unknown command: servre`.

Source

Thrown at internal/glance/cli.go:68

		fmt.Println("\nCommands:")
		fmt.Println("  config:validate       Validate the config file")
		fmt.Println("  config:print          Print the parsed config file with embedded includes")
		fmt.Println("  password:hash <pwd>   Hash a password")
		fmt.Println("  secret:make           Generate a random secret key")
		fmt.Println("  sensors:print         List all sensors")
		fmt.Println("  mountpoint:info       Print information about a given mountpoint path")
		fmt.Println("  diagnose              Run diagnostic checks")
	}

	configPath := flags.String("config", "glance.yml", "Set config path")
	err := flags.Parse(os.Args[1:])
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	var intent cliIntent
	args = flags.Args()
	unknownCommandErr := fmt.Errorf("unknown command: %s", strings.Join(args, " "))

	if len(args) == 0 {
		intent = cliIntentServe
	} else if len(args) == 1 {
		if args[0] == "config:validate" {
			intent = cliIntentConfigValidate
		} else if args[0] == "config:print" {
			intent = cliIntentConfigPrint
		} else if args[0] == "sensors:print" {
			intent = cliIntentSensorsPrint
		} else if args[0] == "diagnose" {
			intent = cliIntentDiagnose
		} else if args[0] == "secret:make" {
			intent = cliIntentSecretMake
		} else {
			return nil, unknownCommandErr
		}
	} else if len(args) == 2 {

View on GitHub (pinned to 91324e8de7)

Solutions

1. Run `glance --help` (or glance with no args) and use one of the listed commands: config:validate, config:print, sensors:print, diagnose, mountpoint:info.
2. For config checking use `glance config:validate --config glance.yml`.
3. Fix typos: the command is `config:validate`, not `validate` or `check`.
4. If you intended to serve a file, pass just the config path as the single positional argument.

Example fix

# before
$ glance validate --config glance.yml

# after
$ glance config:validate --config glance.yml

# shell: reject before running
case "$1" in
  ""|config:validate|config:print|sensors:print|diagnose|mountpoint:info) glance "$@" ;;
  *) echo "unknown command: $1"; glance --help; exit 1 ;;
esac

When it happens

Trigger: Running `glance servre`, `glance check config`, `glance --config glance.yml frobnicate`, or passing multiple unexpected positionals. Also when flags come after the subcommand in a way flag.Parse leaves unexpected Args behind.

Common situations: Typos in subcommands (`validate` instead of `config:validate`); assuming CLI verbs that don't exist; old scripts written against different tooling; copy-pasting commands from outdated docs.

AI-assisted analysis of glanceapp/glance@91324e8de7 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a66e20468a9e6c13. Report an issue: GitHub.