the required parameter 'channelID' is empty. Rerun the comma

Error message

the required parameter 'channelID' is empty. Rerun the command with -c flag

What it means

The peer snapshot listpending command queries the peer for all pending snapshot requests on a channel, which is identified by the mandatory -c/--channelID flag. validateListPending returns this error when channelID is empty, preventing an ambiguous channel-scoped gRPC call.

Source

Thrown at internal/peer/snapshot/listpending.go:81

		ChannelId:       channelID,
	}
	signedRequest, err := signSnapshotRequest(cl.signer, query)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	resp, err := cl.snapshotClient.QueryPendings(context.Background(), signedRequest)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.WithMessage(err, "failed to list pending requests")
	}

	fmt.Fprintf(cl.writer, "Successfully got pending snapshot requests: %v\n", resp.BlockNumbers)
	return nil
}

func validateListPending() error {
	if channelID == "" {
		return errors.New("the required parameter 'channelID' is empty. Rerun the command with -c flag")
	}
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

Rerun with: peer snapshot listpending -c <channelID>.
Export/verify the channel variable in scripts before invoking: echo "$CHANNEL".
Add [ -n "$CHANNEL" ] || exit 1 guards in shell automation.

Example fix

// before
peer snapshot listpending
// after
peer snapshot listpending -c mychannel

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if [ -z "$CHANNEL" ]; then echo "channelID required"; exit 1; fi
peer snapshot listpending -c "$CHANNEL"

Prevention

Export the channel ID once per script/session
Check [ -n "$CHANNEL" ] before channel-scoped commands
Note: unlike some peer commands, snapshot subcommands have no channel default

When it happens

Trigger: Running 'peer snapshot listpending' without -c/--channelID, or with an empty string value.

Common situations: Automation scripts where the channel variable was unset; running the command outside a script that normally exports CHANNEL; omitting the flag because other peer commands default the channel.

Understand the failure class

Background: "--flag is required" and "must specify" CLI errors: how missing-required-flag validation works and how to fix it — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/52cbf089b38cced5. Report an issue: GitHub.