hashicorp/nomad · error

plugin_exit_after %v not a valid duration: %v

Error message

plugin_exit_after %v not a valid duration: %v

What it means

Same duration-parsing failure as start_block_for but for the PluginExitAfter config field: parseDriverConfig validates it during StartTask and rejects the whole task start if the string cannot be parsed as a Go duration.

Source

Thrown at drivers/mock/driver.go:438

		return fmt.Errorf("stderr_repeat_duration %v not a valid duration: %v", c.stderrRepeatDuration, err)
	}

	return nil
}

func parseDriverConfig(cfg *drivers.TaskConfig) (*TaskConfig, error) {
	var driverConfig TaskConfig
	if err := cfg.DecodeDriverConfig(&driverConfig); err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	var err error
	if driverConfig.startBlockForDuration, err = parseDuration(driverConfig.StartBlockFor); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("start_block_for %v not a valid duration: %v", driverConfig.StartBlockFor, err)
	}

	if driverConfig.pluginExitAfterDuration, err = parseDuration(driverConfig.PluginExitAfter); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("plugin_exit_after %v not a valid duration: %v", driverConfig.PluginExitAfter, err)
	}

	if err = driverConfig.parseDurations(); err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	if driverConfig.ExecCommand != nil {
		if err = driverConfig.ExecCommand.parseDurations(); err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
	}

	return &driverConfig, nil
}

func (d *Driver) StartTask(cfg *drivers.TaskConfig) (*drivers.TaskHandle, *drivers.DriverNetwork, error) {
	driverConfig, err := parseDriverConfig(cfg)
	if err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Correct PluginExitAfter in the task driver config to a valid duration (e.g. "30s").
2. Add an explicit unit suffix to any bare number.
3. If the inner parse error points to a stray character, remove it and re-run the task.

Example fix

// before
cfg := map[string]interface{}{"PluginExitAfter": "120"}
// after
cfg := map[string]interface{}{"PluginExitAfter": "2m"}

if v, ok := cfg["PluginExitAfter"].(string); !ok || v == "" {
    return errors.New("PluginExitAfter must be a non-empty duration string")
} else if _, err := time.ParseDuration(v); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("PluginExitAfter %q is not a valid duration: %v", v, err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling StartTask with a MockDriverConfig whose PluginExitAfter is not a valid Go duration string (e.g. "60" without a unit, or a non-numeric garbage value).

Common situations: Setting PluginExitAfter = "1m" vs "60" confusion; leaving the field as an empty string when a value was expected; environment-variable-substituted config yielding an unparseable value.

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

• start_block_for %v not a valid duration: %v
• error parsing rpc_handshake_timeout: %v
• start_timeout should be greater than 0s
• Error parsing max kill timeout: %s
• run_for %v not a valid duration: %v

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fab0791dfc5b58ac. Report an issue: GitHub.