jaegertracing/jaeger · error

invalid mapping type: %s

Error message

invalid mapping type: %s

What it means

MappingTypeFromString resolves a Jaeger index base name (e.g. "jaeger-span") to a MappingType enum used to render index templates. It returns this error when the name is not one of the four recognized Jaeger index names (span, service, dependencies, sampling). The %s is echoed verbatim so the caller can see which name was rejected.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/elasticsearch/esclient/index_template.go:52

	ServiceMapping
	DependencyMapping
	SamplingMapping
)

// MappingTypeFromString resolves a Jaeger index base name (e.g. "jaeger-span")
// to its MappingType.
func MappingTypeFromString(name string) (MappingType, error) {
	switch name {
	case config.SpanIndexName:
		return SpanMapping, nil
	case config.ServiceIndexName:
		return ServiceMapping, nil
	case config.DependencyIndexName:
		return DependencyMapping, nil
	case config.SamplingIndexName:
		return SamplingMapping, nil
	default:
		return 0, fmt.Errorf("invalid mapping type: %s", name)
	}
}

// file returns the embedded neutral-body file name, or "" for an unknown type.
func (m MappingType) file() string {
	switch m {
	case SpanMapping:
		return "jaeger-span.json"
	case ServiceMapping:
		return "jaeger-service.json"
	case DependencyMapping:
		return "jaeger-dependencies.json"
	case SamplingMapping:
		return "jaeger-sampling.json"
	default:
		return ""
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 806f444784)

Solutions

1. Pass the bare Jaeger base name (e.g. "jaeger-span"), not a prefixed, dated, or rollover-numbered variant
2. Compare against config.SpanIndexName/ServiceIndexName/DependencyIndexName/SamplingIndexName constants instead of hand-written strings
3. If handling user input, validate against the four allowed names before calling
4. If you have a MappingType already, avoid the round-trip: use the enum directly rather than converting from its string form

Example fix

// before
mt, err := esclient.MappingTypeFromString(prefix + "jaeger-span") // "my-prefix-jaeger-span"
// after
mt, err := esclient.MappingTypeFromString(config.SpanIndexName) // "jaeger-span"

var validNames = map[string]bool{
    config.SpanIndexName: true, config.ServiceIndexName: true,
    config.DependencyIndexName: true, config.SamplingIndexName: true,
}
if !validNames[name] {
    return fmt.Errorf("unsupported index name %q", name)
}
mt, err := esclient.MappingTypeFromString(name)

func isJaegerIndexName(name string) bool {
    switch name {
    case config.SpanIndexName, config.ServiceIndexName,
        config.DependencyIndexName, config.SamplingIndexName:
        return true
    }
    return false
}

mt, err := esclient.MappingTypeFromString(name)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("cannot render template for %q: %w", name, err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling MappingTypeFromString with a name other than config.SpanIndexName, ServiceIndexName, DependencyIndexName, or SamplingIndexName — e.g. a typo, an index name with a prefix or date suffix attached, or a fully-qualified index name like "jaeger-span-000001" instead of the base name.

Common situations: Passing the configured index prefix plus name ("my-prefix-jaeger-span") instead of the bare base name; passing a rollover physical index name; wiring a custom index name from user config into template generation; iterating over indices returned by GetJaegerIndices (which include dates/rollover numbers) and feeding them to template generation.

Related errors

• invalid parameters
• failed to create template: %w
• failed to check if template exists: %w
• invalid mapping type %q: please pass one of %q, %q, %q, or %
• file must begin with '['

AI-assisted analysis of jaegertracing/jaeger@806f444784 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f8a0ab05f068efae. Report an issue: GitHub.