juicedata/juicefs · error

negative value for %s: %d

Error message

negative value for %s: %d

What it means

Returned by `juicefs config` when an integer flag (changelog-max-lines) is set to a negative number. Line-count limits cannot be negative, so the configuration update is refused before touching the volume format.

Source

Thrown at cmd/config.go:334

				if new && format.ChangeLogMaxAge == 0 && !ctx.IsSet("changelog-max-age") {
					format.ChangeLogMaxAge = 7200
					msg.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf("%10s: 0s -> %s (default)\n", "changelog-max-age", time.Duration(7200)*time.Second))
				}
			}
		case "changelog-max-age":
			d := ctx.Duration(flag)
			if d < 0 {
				return fmt.Errorf("negative duration for %s: %s", flag, d)
			}
			newAge := int64(d.Seconds())
			if newAge != format.ChangeLogMaxAge {
				msg.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf("%10s: %s -> %s\n", flag, time.Duration(format.ChangeLogMaxAge)*time.Second, d))
				format.ChangeLogMaxAge = newAge
			}
		case "changelog-max-lines":
			if new := ctx.Int64(flag); new != format.ChangeLogMaxLines {
				if new < 0 {
					return fmt.Errorf("negative value for %s: %d", flag, new)
				}
				msg.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf("%10s: %d -> %d\n", flag, format.ChangeLogMaxLines, new))
				format.ChangeLogMaxLines = new
			}
		case "user-group-quota":
			if new := ctx.Bool(flag); new != format.UserGroupQuota {
				msg.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf("%10s: %t -> %t\n", flag, format.UserGroupQuota, new))
				format.UserGroupQuota = new
			}
		case "min-client-version":
			if new := ctx.String(flag); new != format.MinClientVersion {
				if version.Parse(new) == nil {
					return fmt.Errorf("Invalid version string: %s", new)
				}
				if compareVersion(new, format.MinClientVersion) < 0 {
					return fmt.Errorf("cannot lower min-client-version from %s to %s", format.MinClientVersion, new)
				}
				requireMinClientVersion(new)

View on GitHub (pinned to c9a67b23e8)

Solutions

1. Pass a non-negative integer, e.g. `--changelog-max-lines 100000`
2. Use the default by not setting the flag
3. Fix the script variable computing the limit

Example fix

// before
juicefs config sqlite3://test.db --changelog-max-lines -1
// after
juicefs config sqlite3://test.db --changelog-max-lines 10000

if [ "$LINES" -lt 0 ]; then die "changelog-max-lines must be >= 0"; fi

When it happens

Trigger: `juicefs config META --changelog-max-lines -100` or any negative int64 passed to the flag.

Common situations: Signed arithmetic in scripts producing negative limits; confusing 'unlimited' semantics with negative numbers (use 0/default instead).

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• changelog is not enabled, use `juicefs config %s --changelog
• tier should be between 0 and 3
• Invalid trash days: %d
• negative duration for %s: %s
• Invalid version string: %s

AI-assisted analysis of juicedata/juicefs@c9a67b23e8 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a3c87848fd473828. Report an issue: GitHub.