hashicorp/nomad · error

decompression_size_limit must not be nil

Error message

decompression_size_limit must not be nil

What it means

decompression_size_limit is a human-readable byte-size string (parsed by humanize.ParseBytes, e.g. "1GB"). Validate() fails with 'decompression_size_limit must not be nil' when the field was never set, because Nomad requires the decompression byte cap to be explicit to guard against decompression bombs.

Source

Thrown at nomad/structs/config/artifact.go:228

	if a.S3Timeout == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("s3_timeout must be set")
	}
	if v, err := time.ParseDuration(*a.S3Timeout); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("s3_timeout not a valid duration: %w", err)
	} else if v < 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("s3_timeout must be > 0")
	}

	if a.DecompressionFileCountLimit == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("decompression_file_count_limit must not be nil")
	}
	if v := *a.DecompressionFileCountLimit; v < 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("decompression_file_count_limit must be >= 0 but found %d", v)
	}

	if a.DecompressionSizeLimit == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("decompression_size_limit must not be nil")
	}
	if v, err := humanize.ParseBytes(*a.DecompressionSizeLimit); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("decompression_size_limit is not a valid size: %w", err)
	} else if v > math.MaxInt64 {
		return fmt.Errorf("decompression_size_limit must be < %d but found %d", int64(math.MaxInt64), v)
	}

	if a.DisableArtifactInspection == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("disable_artifact_inspection must be set")
	}

	if a.DisableFilesystemIsolation == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("disable_filesystem_isolation must be set")
	}

	for _, p := range a.FilesystemIsolationExtraPaths {
		if _, err := landlock.ParsePath(p); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("filesystem_isolation_extra_paths contains invalid lockdown path %q", p)

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Add decompression_size_limit = "1GB" (or an appropriate size) to the artifact block.
2. Start from DefaultArtifactConfig(), which populates DecompressionSizeLimit, before overriding.
3. Ensure your templating/rendering pipeline never drops the key; fail at render time when the variable is empty.

Example fix

// before
artifact {
  # decompression_size_limit missing
}
// after
artifact {
  decompression_size_limit = "1GB"
}

if cfg.DecompressionSizeLimit == nil || *cfg.DecompressionSizeLimit == "" {
    return errors.New("artifact config must set decompression_size_limit, e.g. \"1GB\"")
}

func hasSizeLimit(a *ArtifactConfig) bool { return a.DecompressionSizeLimit != nil && *a.DecompressionSizeLimit != "" }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ArtifactConfig.Validate() where a.DecompressionSizeLimit is a nil *string because the key is absent from the config source.

Common situations: Configs predating the size-limit feature; hand-built structs in Go code or tests; variables left empty in templates ({{var}} omitted) so the key vanishes; merge helpers that skip empty strings and nil alike.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• decompression_file_count_limit must not be nil
• s3_timeout must be set
• decompression_file_count_limit must be >= 0 but found %d
• decompression_size_limit is not a valid size: %w
• decompression_size_limit must be < %d but found %d

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/271e3d43defe3e66. Report an issue: GitHub.