gofr-dev/gofr · error

unsupported config file format

Error message

unsupported config file format

What it means

errUnsupportedFormat is returned by rbac.LoadPermissions when the RBAC permissions config file has an extension other than the supported .json, .yaml, or .yml. LoadPermissions detects the format via the file extension (strings.ToLower(filepath.Ext(path))) and refuses to parse anything else. This prevents silently mis-parsing config files with an unrecognized structure.

Source

Thrown at pkg/gofr/rbac/config.go:22

	"encoding/json"
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"os"
	"path/filepath"
	"strings"

	"github.com/gorilla/mux"
	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel/trace"
	"gopkg.in/yaml.v3"

	"gofr.dev/pkg/gofr/container"
	"gofr.dev/pkg/gofr/datasource"
)

var (
	// errUnsupportedFormat is returned when the config file format is not supported.
	errUnsupportedFormat = errors.New("unsupported config file format")

	// ErrEndpointMissingPermissions is returned when an endpoint doesn't specify requiredPermissions and is not public.
	ErrEndpointMissingPermissions = errors.New("endpoint must specify requiredPermissions (or be public)")

	// errWildcardPatternNotSupported is returned when a wildcard pattern is used.
	errWildcardPatternNotSupported = errors.New("wildcard pattern '/*' is not supported, use mux patterns instead")

	// errRegexPatternNotSupported is returned when an old regex pattern is used.
	errRegexPatternNotSupported = errors.New("regex pattern '^...$' is not supported, use mux patterns instead")

	// errRegexIndicatorNotSupported is returned when regex indicators are used outside variable constraints.
	errRegexIndicatorNotSupported = errors.New("regex pattern is not supported, use mux patterns instead")
)

// RoleDefinition defines a role with its permissions and inheritance.
// Pure config-based: only role->permission mapping is supported.
type RoleDefinition struct {
	// Name is the role name (required)

View on GitHub (pinned to 187eb24962)

Solutions

1. Convert the config file to JSON, YAML (.yaml), or YML (.yml).
2. Rename the file to have the correct extension matching its actual content.
3. If the file already IS JSON/YAML but misnamed, fix the extension — format detection is extension-based only.

Example fix

// before
roles, err := rbac.LoadPermissions("rbac.toml", logger, metrics, tracer)
// after
roles, err := rbac.LoadPermissions("rbac.yaml", logger, metrics, tracer)

func validateRBACPath(path string) error {
	ext := strings.ToLower(filepath.Ext(path))
	switch ext {
	case ".json", ".yaml", ".yml":
		return nil
	default:
		return fmt.Errorf("unsupported rbac config extension %q; use .json/.yaml/.yml", ext)
	}
}

cfg, err := rbac.LoadPermissions(path, logger, metrics, tracer)
if err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("rbac config load failed: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling LoadPermissions(path, ...) or EnableRBAC with a file whose extension is e.g. .toml, .ini, .xml, .txt, or no extension.

Common situations: Teams exporting permissions from another tool as TOML/INI; config file renamed or copied without its extension; YAML file saved as .config; typo like permissons.ymlx.

Related errors

• validate func is empty
• endpoint must specify requiredPermissions (or be public)
• wildcard pattern '/*' is not supported, use mux patterns ins
• regex pattern '^...$' is not supported, use mux patterns ins
• regex pattern is not supported, use mux patterns instead

AI-assisted analysis of gofr-dev/gofr@187eb24962 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8ff63cd2ea9c8699. Report an issue: GitHub.