ipfs/kubo · error

cannot parse $EDITOR value: %s

Error message

cannot parse $EDITOR value: %s

What it means

`editConfig` parses $EDITOR with shlex (shell-style word splitting) so values like 'code -w' become command + args. This error wraps a shlex failure — raised when the EDITOR value contains unbalanced quotes or other characters that cannot be tokenized. The wrapped shlex error is included via %s.

Source

Thrown at core/commands/config.go:614

		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to set config value: %s (maybe use --json?)", err)
	}
	return getConfig(r, key)
}

// parseEditorCommand parses the EDITOR environment variable into command and arguments
func parseEditorCommand(editor string) ([]string, error) {
	return shlex.Split(editor, true)
}

func editConfig(filename string) error {
	editor := os.Getenv("EDITOR")
	if editor == "" {
		return errors.New("ENV variable $EDITOR not set")
	}

	editorAndArgs, err := parseEditorCommand(editor)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("cannot parse $EDITOR value: %s", err)
	}
	editor = editorAndArgs[0]
	args := append(editorAndArgs[1:], filename)

	cmd := exec.Command(editor, args...)
	cmd.Stdin, cmd.Stdout, cmd.Stderr = os.Stdin, os.Stdout, os.Stderr
	return cmd.Run()
}

// nodePeerID derives the PeerID implied by the private key stored in the repo
// config. Identity.PeerID must equal this value; the node refuses to start
// when the two disagree.
func nodePeerID(r repo.Repo) (peer.ID, error) {
	keyF, err := getConfig(r, config.PrivKeySelector)
	if err != nil {
		return "", errors.New("failed to get PrivKey")
	}
	pkstr, ok := keyF.Value.(string)

View on GitHub (pinned to 329838acdf)

Solutions

1. Fix the EDITOR value to be simple or correctly quoted: `EDITOR='code -w'` (balanced quotes)
2. Test the split first: `echo $EDITOR` and verify it's a clean command plus optional flags
3. Simplify to a bare binary name if possible: `EDITOR=vim`
4. If the editor path has spaces, create a symlink without spaces or use a wrapper script

Example fix

// before
export EDITOR='my editor -w   "'
// after
export EDITOR='code -w'

EDITOR='code -w'; python3 -c "import shlex,sys; shlex.split(sys.argv[1])" "$EDITOR" && echo "EDITOR parses OK"

if err := editConfig(f); err != nil {
    if strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "cannot parse $EDITOR") {
        fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "fix EDITOR quoting; got: %q\n", os.Getenv("EDITOR"))
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: EDITOR set to a value with unbalanced quotes, e.g. `EDITOR='vim "'` or other malformed shell-like strings that shlex.Split cannot parse into tokens.

Common situations: Users quoting paths with mismatched quotes (EDITOR="'/usr/local/bin/my editor"), or copy-pasting an EDITOR value with stray quote characters into their shell rc file.

Related errors

• invalid provide strategy: empty token in %q
• unknown provide strategy token: %q in %q
• failed to unmarshal json. %s
• ENV variable $EDITOR not set
• cannot parse mode %s: %s

AI-assisted analysis of ipfs/kubo@329838acdf (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/15642f85e8ad74cf. Report an issue: GitHub.