jaegertracing/jaeger · error

wrong number of arguments

Error message

wrong number of arguments

What it means

refArg extracts a single span-field reference operand from a predicate call. If the predicate's sole argument is not a reference to a value on the span (asReference fails), the predicate is rejected with tracestore.ErrFilterInvalid because the operator semantically requires reading a field from the span. The error wraps ErrFilterInvalid so callers can distinguish malformed filters from unsupported ones.

Source

Thrown at cmd/es-index-cleaner/main.go:58

			featuregate.WithRegisterFromVersion("v2.5.0"),
			featuregate.WithRegisterDescription("Deprecated alias for jaeger.es.index.relativeTimeIndexDeletion."),
			featuregate.WithRegisterReferenceURL("https://github.com/jaegertracing/jaeger/issues/9016"),
		),
	)
}

func main() {
	logger, _ := zap.NewProduction()
	v := viper.New()
	cfg := &app.Config{}

	command := &cobra.Command{
		Use:   "jaeger-es-index-cleaner NUM_OF_DAYS http://HOSTNAME:PORT",
		Short: "Jaeger es-index-cleaner removes Jaeger indices",
		Long:  "Jaeger es-index-cleaner removes Jaeger indices",
		RunE: func(_ *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
			if len(args) != 2 {
				return errors.New("wrong number of arguments")
			}
			numOfDays, err := strconv.Atoi(args[0])
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("could not parse NUM_OF_DAYS argument: %w", err)
			}

			if err := cfg.InitFromViper(v); err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("failed to initialize config: %w", err)
			}

			ctx := context.Background()
			esClient, err := app.NewESClient(ctx, args[1], cfg, logger)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("error creating Elasticsearch client: %w", err)
			}
			i := esclient.IndicesClient{
				Client:                 esClient,
				MasterTimeoutSeconds:   cfg.MasterNodeTimeoutSeconds,

View on GitHub (pinned to 806f444784)

Solutions

1. Pass a span field reference (e.g. an attribute/tag reference) as the predicate's single argument, not a literal constant.
2. Finalize/validate the expression tree so constants are converted to references where the operator requires one.
3. Inspect the predicate's arguments before submitting: exactly one reference argument is required.

Example fix

// before
{"op": "tag", "args": ["production"]}
// after
{"op": "tag", "args": {"ref": "tag.production"}}

func singleRefArg(c *expression.Call) bool {
    return len(c.Args) == 1 && isReference(c.Args[0])
}

func isReference(term expression.Expression) bool {
    _, ok := asReference(term)
    return ok
}

ref, err := refArg(predicate)
if errors.Is(err, tracestore.ErrFilterInvalid) {
    // predicate needs a span-field reference argument
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling a trace search with a filter predicate like tag(...) or a field-reading operator whose argument is a constant or another expression instead of a span field reference, detected in buildFilterQuery via refArg.

Common situations: Writing exists("production") style filters where a constant is passed where a field/tag name reference is expected; programmatically constructed expression trees passing literal values; typos in filter DSL usage.

Related errors

• only one of basic auth (--es.username/--es.password), --es.t
• %w: %w
• file must begin with '['
• only one of basic auth (--es.username/--es.password), --es.t
• empty configuration

AI-assisted analysis of jaegertracing/jaeger@806f444784 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c34829478990a7b0. Report an issue: GitHub.