influxdata/influxdb · error · PartitionKeyError

invalid strftime format in partition template

Error message

invalid strftime format in partition template

What it means

PartitionKeyError::InvalidStrftime is returned when a partition template contains a TimeFormat part whose strftime format string cannot be compiled into a valid formatter. Key generation cannot proceed without a valid time format.

Solutions

1. Validate the strftime format string when the template is configured, before ingesting data
2. Fix the format spec in the partition template definition
3. Test the template against a sample timestamp at config load time

Example fix

// before
let tpl = Template::parse("%Y-%m-%d %Q")?; // %Q invalid
// after
let tpl = Template::parse("%Y-%m-%dT%H%M")?;

// validate at config load time
let fmt: strftime::Fmt = format.parse().map_err(|_| "invalid strftime format in partition template")?;

match make_partition_key(row, &template) {
    Err(PartitionKeyError::InvalidStrftime) => reject_template(template),
    Err(e) => return Err(e.into()),
    Ok(key) => key,
}

When it happens

Trigger: Building partition keys for rows whose template includes Template::TimeFormat with an invalid strftime spec (e.g. stray '%', unsupported specifier).

Common situations: Typo in the partition template configuration (e.g. '%Q'); user-supplied templates from config or API that were never validated; migrating templates between libraries with different strftime subsets.

Related errors

• An unexpected error occurred in the client library
• base URL error
• Cannot parse object store config
• cannot write to a compactor-only server
• Connection error

AI-assisted analysis of influxdata/influxdb@06200ef96b (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e29aa71cbcdf4c66. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at core/partition/src/lib.rs:38

    },
};
use hashbrown::HashMap;
use mutable_batch::{MutableBatch, WritePayload};
use table_batch::{
    ValueCollection,
    builder::{DictionaryBuffer, StringBuffer, slice_values},
};
use thiserror::Error;

use self::template::Template;
pub use self::traits::{Batch, PartitioningColumn, TimeColumnError};

/// An error generating a partition key for a row.
#[derive(Debug, Error, PartialEq, Eq, Clone)]
pub enum PartitionKeyError {
    /// The partition template defines a [`Template::TimeFormat`] part, but the
    /// provided strftime formatter is invalid.
    #[error("invalid strftime format in partition template")]
    InvalidStrftime,

    /// The partition template defines a [`Template::TagValue`] part, but the
    /// column type is not "tag".
    #[error("tag value partitioner does not accept input columns of type {0}")]
    TagValueNotTag(String),

    /// A "catch all" error for when a formatter returns [`std::fmt::Error`],
    /// which contains no context.
    #[error("partition key generation error")]
    FmtError(#[from] std::fmt::Error),
}

/// Returns an iterator identifying consecutive ranges for a given partition key
pub fn partition_batch<'a, T>(
    batch: &'a T,
    template: &'a TablePartitionTemplateOverride,
) -> impl Iterator<Item = (Result<String, PartitionKeyError>, Range<usize>)> + 'a

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