hashicorp/nomad · error

Invalid answer %q

Error message

Invalid answer %q

What it means

When the job restart command asks how long to wait between batch restarts and the user typed a duration string, time.ParseDuration must succeed. If the answer is not a valid Go duration (e.g. '10' without a unit), the command rejects it with Invalid answer %q.

Source

Thrown at command/job_restart.go:782

	return c.askQuestion(
		fmt.Sprintf("%s [%s]", question, options),
		false,
		func(answer string) (bool, error) {
			switch strings.ToLower(answer) {
			case "":
				// Proceed by default only if there is no error.
				return err == nil, nil
			case "y", "yes":
				return true, nil
			case "n", "no":
				return false, nil
			default:
				if c.batchWaitAsk {
					// Check if user passed a time duration and adjust the
					// command to use that moving forward.
					batchWait, err := time.ParseDuration(answer)
					if err != nil {
						return false, fmt.Errorf("Invalid answer %q", answer)
					}

					c.batchWaitAsk = false
					c.batchWait = batchWait
					c.Ui.Output(c.Colorize().Color(fmt.Sprintf(
						"[bold]==> %s: Proceeding restarts with new wait time of %s[reset]",
						formatTime(time.Now()),
						c.batchWait,
					)))
					return true, nil
				} else {
					return false, fmt.Errorf("Invalid answer %q", answer)
				}
			}
		})
}

// shouldExit blocks and waits for the user for confirmation if they would like

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Re-answer the prompt with a valid duration including a unit, e.g. 30s or 5m
2. Use units supported by time.ParseDuration: ns, us, ms, s, m, h
3. Use plain 'y'/'n' answers if you don't want to change the wait time

Example fix

// before
answer: "30"          # rejected
// after
answer: "30s"        # accepted

_, err := time.ParseDuration(input)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("use a duration like 30s or 5m")
}

// the CLI re-prompts; at call sites wrap:
if err != nil {
    ui.Error(fmt.Sprintf("%v; expected e.g. 30s", err))
    return retryPrompt()
}

When it happens

Trigger: Answering the batch-wait interactive prompt with a string that fails time.ParseDuration, e.g. '10', '10secs', 'abc' instead of '10s'.

Common situations: User omits the time unit at the prompt; uses units Go doesn't understand (e.g. 'min' instead of 'm', 'seconds' instead of 's').

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid duration" / "failed to parse duration": why your timeout, interval, or TTL string is rejected and which formats each library accepts — this error's family across 32 libraries.

Related errors

• error parsing HTTPReadTimeout: %w
• error parsing HTTPMaxSize: %w
• error parsing GCSTimeout: %w
• error parsing GitTimeout: %w
• error parsing HgTimeout: %w

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cd227de586758942. Report an issue: GitHub.