What causes "WARNING: The second argument to `vagrant box remove`" in hashicorp/vagrant?

Replace the positional provider with the flag: `vagrant box remove --provider `.

WARNING: The second argument to `vagrant box remove`

Error message

WARNING: The second argument to `vagrant box remove`

What it means

First of three hardcoded warning lines printed by `vagrant box remove` (plugins/commands/box/command/remove.rb) when the command is invoked with two positional arguments (argv.length == 2), i.e. the legacy `vagrant box remove <name> <provider>` form. The second argument is treated as the provider via options[:provider] = argv[1], and the deprecation notice warns that this will stop working in the next version.

Source

Thrown at plugins/commands/box/command/remove.rb:60

              options[:all_providers] = a
            end

            o.on("--all-architectures", "Remove all architectures within a provider a version of the box") do |a|
              options[:all_architectures] = a
            end
          end

          # Parse the options
          argv = parse_options(opts)
          return if !argv
          if argv.empty? || argv.length > 2
            raise Vagrant::Errors::CLIInvalidUsage,
              help: opts.help.chomp
          end

          if argv.length == 2
            # @deprecated
            @env.ui.warn("WARNING: The second argument to `vagrant box remove`")
            @env.ui.warn("is deprecated. Please use the --provider flag. This")
            @env.ui.warn("feature will stop working in the next version.")
            options[:provider] = argv[1]
          end

          @env.action_runner.run(Vagrant::Action.action_box_remove, {
            box_name:     argv[0],
            box_architecture: options[:architecture],
            box_provider: options[:provider],
            box_version:  options[:version],
            force_confirm_box_remove: options[:force],
            box_remove_all_versions: options[:all],
            box_remove_all_providers: options[:all_providers],
            box_remove_all_architectures: options[:all_architectures]
          })

          # Success, exit status 0
          0

View on GitHub (pinned to 35f3160f4a)

Solutions

Replace the positional provider with the flag: `vagrant box remove <name> --provider <provider>`.
Audit scripts/docs for the two-argument pattern (`box remove \S+ \S+`) and update them before upgrading Vagrant, since the feature is scheduled for removal.
Combine with other flags as needed: --version, --box-version kept as documented (--provider is the only replacement needed here).

Example fix

# before
vagrant box remove ubuntu/jammy64 virtualbox

# after
vagrant box remove ubuntu/jammy64 --provider virtualbox

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# Reject legacy two-positional-arg invocations before running
if [ "$#" -eq 2 ]; then
  echo "use: vagrant box remove $1 --provider $2" >&2; exit 2
fi
vagrant box remove "$@"

Prevention

Always use `--provider` when removing boxes for a specific provider.
Grep repos and docs for `vagrant box remove \S+ \S+` and fix matches.
Add a wrapper/alias in shared tooling that rewrites the old form to the flag form.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `vagrant box remove mybox virtualbox` (two positional args) instead of `vagrant box remove mybox --provider virtualbox`. Any script or shell history still using the old two-argument spelling triggers all three warning lines.

Common situations: Old tutorials, provisioning scripts, and Makefiles written for pre-flag Vagrant versions; muscle memory from other tools where the provider is positional; copy-pasted commands from outdated docs.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/vagrant@35f3160f4a (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ea9ea5032be2ddcc. Report an issue: GitHub.