golang-migrate/migrate · error

-all cannot be used with other arguments

Error message

-all cannot be used with other arguments

What it means

numDownMigrationsFromArgs returns the error '-all cannot be used with other arguments' when `migrate down -all` is invoked together with an extra positional argument. The -all flag means 'down all migrations' and is therefore incompatible with an explicit limit N; the CLI surfaces this to force an unambiguous command.

Source

Thrown at internal/cli/commands.go:230

func versionCmd(m *migrate.Migrate) error {
	v, dirty, err := m.Version()
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if dirty {
		log.Printf("%v (dirty)\n", v)
	} else {
		log.Println(v)
	}
	return nil
}

// numDownMigrationsFromArgs returns an int for number of migrations to apply
// and a bool indicating if we need a confirm before applying
func numDownMigrationsFromArgs(applyAll bool, args []string) (int, bool, error) {
	if applyAll {
		if len(args) > 0 {
			return 0, false, errors.New("-all cannot be used with other arguments")
		}
		return -1, false, nil
	}

	switch len(args) {
	case 0:
		return -1, true, nil
	case 1:
		downValue := args[0]
		n, err := strconv.ParseUint(downValue, 10, 64)
		if err != nil {
			return 0, false, errors.New("can't read limit argument N")
		}
		return int(n), false, nil
	default:
		return 0, false, errors.New("too many arguments")
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a9643f14)

Solutions

1. Use `migrate down -all` alone to revert everything, or `migrate down N` without -all to revert N migrations.
2. Remove the extra positional argument from the command line/script.
3. Guard in wrapper scripts: if -all is present, drop any positional args.
4. Check shell variables/quoting so they don't inject an unexpected argument.

Example fix

// before
migrate -path ./migrations -database $DB down -all 2
// after
migrate -path ./migrations -database $DB down -all   # or: down 2 without -all

ARGS=$(cat)
if grep -q -- '-all' <<< "$ARGS" && [ $(wc -w <<< "$POSITIONAL") -gt 0 ]; then
	echo "-all cannot be combined with positional arguments"; exit 1
fi

When it happens

Trigger: Running `migrate -source file -path . down -all 2` — the -all flag combined with one or more positional args (len(args) > 0 when applyAll is true).

Common situations: Script templates appending an argument for other subcommands while -all is still present; users unsure whether to use -all or N and passing both; shell variable expansion that appends an empty-but-counted argument.

Related errors

• the seq and format options are mutually exclusive
• digits must be positive
• time format may not be empty
• can't read limit argument N
• too many arguments

AI-assisted analysis of golang-migrate/migrate@01a9643f14 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b8d84e8122aa23b4. Report an issue: GitHub.