languagetool-org/languagetool · error · IllegalArgumentException

Applying suggestions makes no sense for profiling

Error message

Applying suggestions makes no sense for profiling

What it means

parseOptions rejects -p/--profile together with -a/--apply-suggestions. Profiling measures rule evaluation times on the input text; automatically rewriting the text with applied suggestions would change the workload and the output, so the combination throws IllegalArgumentException.

Source

Thrown at languagetool-commandline/src/main/java/org/languagetool/commandline/CommandLineParser.java:164

        }
        if (options.isListUnknown()) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("You cannot list unknown words in JSON output format");
        }
      } else if (args[i].equals("-a") || args[i].equals("--apply")) {
        options.setApplySuggestions(true);
        if (options.isTaggerOnly()) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("You cannot apply suggestions when tagging only");
        }
        if (options.isJsonFormat()) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("JSON output format makes no sense for automatic application of suggestions");
        }
      } else if (args[i].equals("-p") || args[i].equals("--profile")) {
        options.setProfile(true);
        if (options.isJsonFormat()) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("JSON output format makes no sense for profiling");
        }
        if (options.isApplySuggestions()) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("Applying suggestions makes no sense for profiling");
        }
        if (options.isTaggerOnly()) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("Tagging makes no sense for profiling");
        }
      } else if (args[i].equals("--xmlfilter")) {
        options.setXmlFiltering(true);
      } else if (i == args.length - 1) {
        options.setFilename(args[i]);
      } else {
        throw new UnknownParameterException("Unknown parameter: " + args[i]);
      }
    }
    return options;
  }

  void printUsage() {
    printUsage(System.out);
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 2e990059ce)

Solutions

1. Remove -a/--apply-suggestions when profiling
2. Profile first to find slow rules, then run a separate -a pass to apply fixes
3. Keep profiling flags in a dedicated script that never sets -a

Example fix

// before
languagetool -l en -p -a file.txt
// after
languagetool -l en -p file.txt   # profile
languagetool -l en -a file.txt   # apply suggestions

if (hasFlag(args, "-p", "--profile") && hasFlag(args, "-a", "--apply-suggestions")) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("--profile cannot be combined with --apply-suggestions");
}

static boolean hasFlag(String[] args, String... names) {
  for (String a : args) for (String n : names) if (a.equals(n)) return true;
  return false;
}

try {
  options = CommandLineParser.parseOptions(args);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  System.err.println(e.getMessage());
  System.exit(2);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Command line contains both --profile (or -p) and --apply-suggestions (or -a), e.g. `languagetool -p -a file.txt`; the check runs in the profile branch when options.isApplySuggestions() is true.

Common situations: Benchmarking a run while leaving an auto-correct flag enabled from a previous command; building a wrapper that always passes -a and occasionally adds -p for diagnostics.

Understand the failure class

Background: "mutually exclusive" flag errors: what "can't supply both nx and xx", "--raw is not compatible with -i" and "cannot be used with" mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

• JSON output format makes no sense for profiling
• Tagging makes no sense for profiling
• You cannot list unknown words in JSON output format
• Profiling mode cannot be used with input from STDIN
• Unknown parameter: <arg>

AI-assisted analysis of languagetool-org/languagetool@2e990059ce (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f7ecfd0a3a7d3b18. Report an issue: GitHub.