hashicorp/nomad · error

fingerprint %q retry attempts cannot be less than -1

Error message

fingerprint %q retry attempts cannot be less than -1

What it means

Returned by Fingerprint.Validate when the fingerprint block's RetryAttempts is less than -1; -1 means infinite retries and lower values are meaningless, indicating a typo or bad config in the client's fingerprint stanza.

Source

Thrown at client/config/fingerprint.go:112

// Validate the fingerprint block to ensure we do not have any values that
// cannot be handled.
func (f *Fingerprint) Validate() error {

	if f == nil {
		return nil
	}

	if f.Name == "" {
		return errors.New("fingerprint name cannot be empty")
	}
	if !slices.Contains(validEnvFingerprinters, f.Name) {
		return fmt.Errorf("fingerprint %q does not support configuration", f.Name)
	}
	if f.RetryInterval < 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("fingerprint %q retry interval cannot be negative", f.Name)
	}
	if f.RetryAttempts < -1 {
		return fmt.Errorf("fingerprint %q retry attempts cannot be less than -1", f.Name)
	}
	if len(f.ExtraKeysHCL) > 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("fingerprint %q contains unknown configuration options: %s",
			f.Name, strings.Join(f.ExtraKeysHCL, ","))
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Set retry_attempts to -1 for unlimited retries or a value >= 0
2. Remove the option to use defaults

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at client/config/fingerprint.go:112 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b1e5e6cf6fda321b. Report an issue: GitHub.