grosser/parallel_tests · error · RuntimeError

Both options are mutually exclusive: verbose & quiet

Error message

Both options are mutually exclusive: verbose & quiet

What it means

parallel_tests validates its CLI options right after OptionParser parses the command line. --verbose turns on debug output while --quiet suppresses everything except the raw test output, so the two verbosity levels contradict each other and parse_options! raises a plain RuntimeError when both options hash keys are set.

Source

Thrown at lib/parallel_tests/cli.rb:347

          TEXT
        ) { |limit| options[:test_file_limit] = limit }

        opts.on("--verbose", "Print debug output") { options[:verbose] = true }
        opts.on("--verbose-command", "Combines options --verbose-process-command and --verbose-rerun-command") { options.merge! verbose_process_command: true, verbose_rerun_command: true }
        opts.on("--verbose-process-command", "Print the command that will be executed by each process before it begins") { options[:verbose_process_command] = true }
        opts.on("--verbose-rerun-command", "After a process fails, print the command executed by that process") { options[:verbose_rerun_command] = true }
        opts.on("--quiet", "Print only tests output") { options[:quiet] = true }
        opts.on("-v", "--version", "Show Version") do
          puts ParallelTests::VERSION
          exit 0
        end
        opts.on("-h", "--help", "Show this.") do
          puts opts
          exit 0
        end
      end.parse!(argv)

      raise "Both options are mutually exclusive: verbose & quiet" if options[:verbose] && options[:quiet]

      if options[:count] == 0
        options.delete(:count)
        options[:non_parallel] = true
      end

      files, remaining = extract_file_paths(argv)
      unless options[:execute]
        if files.empty?
          default_test_folder = @runner.default_test_folder
          if File.directory?(default_test_folder)
            files = [default_test_folder]
          else
            abort "Pass files or folders to run"
          end
        end
        options[:files] = files.map { |file_path| Pathname.new(file_path).cleanpath.to_s }
      end

View on GitHub (pinned to a06047856d)

Solutions

1. Remove one of the two flags from the command / PARALLEL_TEST_OPTS string -- decide whether you want debug output or clean output
2. If you need targeted verbosity, replace --verbose with --verbose-process-command or --verbose-rerun-command, which are compatible with --quiet
3. Grep the repo (CI yaml, .rake files, Makefile, scripts/) for both flags so the fix covers every entry point

Example fix

# before
PARALLEL_TEST_OPTS="--verbose --quiet" rake parallel:spec

# after
PARALLEL_TEST_OPTS="--quiet" rake parallel:spec

# Ruby: reject the contradictory pair before invoking the CLI
opts = ENV.fetch('PARALLEL_TEST_OPTS', '').shellsplit
if opts.include?('--verbose') && opts.include?('--quiet')
  abort 'parallel_tests: --verbose and --quiet are mutually exclusive'
end
system('parallel_test', *opts)

# Predicate guarding an argv meant for parallel_tests
def parallel_tests_args_valid?(argv)
  !(argv.include?('--verbose') && argv.include?('--quiet'))
end

begin
  ParallelTests::CLI.new.run(args)
rescue RuntimeError => e
  abort "parallel_tests option error: #{e.message}" # fail fast, surface the CLI's own hint
end

When it happens

Trigger: Run the CLI with both flags, e.g. `parallel_test --verbose --quiet spec/`, or set both via an option string like PARALLEL_TEST_OPTS="--verbose --quiet" feeding `rake parallel:spec`; programmatically, `ParallelTests::CLI.new.run(['--verbose', '--quiet'])` hits the same raise at lib/parallel_tests/cli.rb:347.

Common situations: CI option strings that accreted flags over time (--quiet added for clean logs, --verbose added later while debugging and never removed); rake tasks in lib/tasks that merge arguments from several ENV vars; command lines copy-pasted from runbooks or other CI jobs.

Related errors

• Can't pass --failure-exit-code and --highest-exit-status
• --group-by found and --single-process are not supported
• --group-by #{allowed.join(" or ")} is required for --only-gr
• Can't pass --specify-groups with any of these keys: --single
• Grouping by number of cucumber steps requires the `cuke_mode

AI-assisted analysis of grosser/parallel_tests@a06047856d (2026-08-23). Data as JSON: /api/errors/57e709fdf72d5d91. Report an issue: GitHub.