hashicorp/vagrant · error · Vagrant::Errors::AliasInvalidError

The defined alias is not valid. Please review the informatio

Error message

The defined alias is not valid. Please review the information below to help resolve the issue:

Alias: %{alias}
Message: %{message}

What it means

AliasInvalidError is raised by Vagrant::Alias#interpret (lib/vagrant/alias.rb:39) when parsing a line of the user's aliases file and the keyword portion (text left of '=') contains whitespace. The keyword must be a single shell-like token because it is registered as a CLI command override via @aliases.register(keyword.to_sym).

Source

Thrown at lib/vagrant/alias.rb:39

        end
      end
    end

    # This returns all the registered alias commands.
    def commands
      @aliases
    end

    # This interprets a raw line from the aliases file.
    def interpret(line)
      # is it a comment?
      return nil if line.strip.start_with?("#")

      keyword, command = line.split("=", 2).collect(&:strip)

      # validate the keyword
      if keyword.match(/\s/i)
        raise Errors::AliasInvalidError, alias: line, message: "Alias keywords must not contain any whitespace."
      end

      [keyword, command]
    end

    # This registers an alias.
    def register(keyword, command)
      @aliases.register(keyword.to_sym) do
        lambda do |args|
          # directly execute shell commands
          if command.start_with?("!")
            return Util::SafeExec.exec "#{command[1..-1]} #{args.join(" ")}".strip
          end

          return CLI.new(command.split.concat(args), @env).execute
        end
      end
    end

View on GitHub (pinned to 35f3160f4a)

Solutions

1. Edit ~/.vagrant.d/aliases (or the configured aliases file) and rewrite the keyword without whitespace, e.g. 'v-up = up'
2. Use hyphens or underscores to join words in the keyword
3. Remove or comment out (leading '#') any experimental line causing the failure, then re-add corrected

Example fix

# before (~/.vagrant.d/aliases)
vagrant up all = up

# after
v-up = up

# Validate aliases file before Vagrant parses it
Pathname.new(File.join(Vagrant.source_root ? Dir.pwd : Dir.home, '.vagrant.d', 'aliases')) rescue nil
path = File.join(ENV['VAGRANT_HOME'] || File.join(Dir.home, '.vagrant.d'), 'aliases')
if File.exist?(path)
  File.readlines(path).each do |line|
    next if line.strip.start_with?('#') || line.strip.empty?
    keyword, = line.split('=', 2)
    if keyword.nil? || keyword.match(/\s/)
      raise "Fix alias line before launch: #{line.inspect}"
    end
  end
end

When it happens

Trigger: A line like 'my alias = up' or 'v up=up' in ~/.vagrant.d/aliases: line.split("=", 2) yields keyword 'my alias' / 'v up', keyword.match(/\s/i) succeeds, and the error is raised with the offending line and message while Vagrant loads aliases at startup.

Common situations: Hand-editing the aliases file and using spaces in the keyword; copy-pasting alias examples written shell-style ('alias vup=...'); trailing tabs or double spaces introduced by editors.

Related errors

• There are errors in the configuration of this machine. Pleas
• The explicit capability host specified of '%{value}' could n
• There was an error loading a Vagrantfile. The file being loa
• There was an error loading a Vagrantfile. The file being loa
• The host implementation explicitly specified in your Vagrant

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/vagrant@35f3160f4a (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e52a3b8016a84c3a. Report an issue: GitHub.