gohugoio/hugo · error

invalid deployment.orderings.pattern

Error message

invalid deployment.orderings.pattern: %v

What it means

DecodeConfig (deploy/deployconfig/deployConfig.go:171) compiles each entry in deployment.order as a regexp and appends it to the Ordering list (which controls upload ordering). This wraps regexp.Compile failure for any order pattern.

Solutions

1. Treat each order entry as a regex: use '.*' for 'any', anchor as needed, escape literal dots.
2. Validate every entry with regexp.Compile in isolation.
3. Balance parentheses/character classes; remove stray quantifiers.

Example fix

# before
[deployment]
order = ["index.html", "*.css"]   # second entry is glob -> invalid regex

# after
[deployment]
order = ["index\\.html$", ".*\\.css$"]

import "regexp"

func ValidateOrderPatterns(order []string) error {
    for _, o := range order {
        if _, err := regexp.Compile(o); err != nil {
            return fmt.Errorf("order %q: %w", o, err)
        }
    }
    return nil
}

if _, err := deployconfig.DecodeConfig(cfg); err != nil {
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: A value under `order = [...]` (deployment orderings) that is not valid regex: e.g. 'index.html' written as a glob, an unbalanced group, or a dangling '*'.

Common situations: Assuming order entries are globs or plain substrings; copy-pasting a pattern from a glob-based tool; typo producing invalid regex.

Related errors

• invalid deployment.matchers.pattern
• deployment target not found
• empty deployment matcher
• empty deployment target
• failed to compile cache buster target

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/83961d6618ab7eaf. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at deploy/deployconfig/deployConfig.go:173

		}
		if err := tgt.ParseIncludeExclude(); err != nil {
			return dcfg, err
		}
	}
	var err error
	for _, m := range dcfg.Matchers {
		if *m == (Matcher{}) {
			return dcfg, errors.New("empty deployment matcher")
		}
		m.Re, err = regexp.Compile(m.Pattern)
		if err != nil {
			return dcfg, fmt.Errorf("invalid deployment.matchers.pattern: %v", err)
		}
	}
	for _, o := range dcfg.Order {
		re, err := regexp.Compile(o)
		if err != nil {
			return dcfg, fmt.Errorf("invalid deployment.orderings.pattern: %v", err)
		}
		dcfg.Ordering = append(dcfg.Ordering, re)
	}

	return dcfg, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 52c9bd7908)