lima-vm/lima · error

field `memory` has an invalid value: %w

Error message

field `memory` has an invalid value: %w

What it means

The `memory` field is parsed with docker/go-units RAMInBytes, which accepts values like "4GiB", "4GB", "4096MB", or bare byte counts. Any unparseable string ("4 Gigs", "4Gi", "4gb ", negative or garbage) produces a parse error wrapped by this message.

Source

Thrown at pkg/limayaml/validate.go:111

			}
		}
		if f.Initrd != nil {
			err := validateFileObject(*f.Initrd, fmt.Sprintf("images[%d].initrd", i))
			if err != nil {
				errs = errors.Join(errs, err)
			}
			if f.Initrd.Arch != f.Arch {
				errs = errors.Join(errs, fmt.Errorf("images[%d].initrd has unexpected architecture %#q, must be %#q", i, f.Initrd.Arch, f.Arch))
			}
		}
	}

	if *y.CPUs == 0 {
		errs = errors.Join(errs, errors.New("field `cpus` must be set"))
	}

	if _, err := units.RAMInBytes(*y.Memory); err != nil {
		errs = errors.Join(errs, fmt.Errorf("field `memory` has an invalid value: %w", err))
	}

	if _, err := units.RAMInBytes(*y.Disk); err != nil {
		errs = errors.Join(errs, fmt.Errorf("field `disk` has an invalid value: %w", err))
	}

	for i, disk := range y.AdditionalDisks {
		if err := identifiers.Validate(disk.Name); err != nil {
			errs = errors.Join(errs, fmt.Errorf("field `additionalDisks[%d].name is invalid`: %w", i, err))
		}
	}

	for i, f := range y.Mounts {
		if !filepath.IsAbs(f.Location) && !strings.HasPrefix(f.Location, "~") {
			errs = errors.Join(errs, fmt.Errorf("field `mounts[%d].location` must be an absolute path, got %#q",
				i, f.Location))
		}
		// f.Location has already been expanded in FillDefaults(), but that function cannot return errors.

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

1. Use an accepted format like `memory: 4GiB` (or "4096MB")
2. Drop the space between number and unit (`4 GiB` -> `4GiB`)
3. Verify the YAML quoting so the value is a plain scalar string

Example fix

// before
memory: 4 GiB
// after
memory: 4GiB

import "github.com/docker/go-units"

func validMemory(mem string) bool {
	_, err := units.RAMInBytes(mem)
	return err == nil
}

if err := limayaml.Validate(y, false); err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "field `memory` has an invalid value") {
		return fmt.Errorf("bad memory format (use e.g. 4GiB): %w", err)
	}
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: `memory` set to a string units.RAMInBytes cannot parse, e.g. `memory: 4Gi`, `memory: 4 G`, or a non-numeric string; Validate() invoked on a YAML whose memory key is malformed.

Common situations: Typos in size suffixes; adding spaces or locale-formatted numbers; using "k"/"ki" inconsistently; quoting mistakes in YAML producing unexpected strings.

Related errors

• invalid value for static parameter: %#q
• invalid parameter %#q, expected `static=` followed by a bool
• invalid parameter %#q, expected NAME=VALUE
• template does not define param %#q
• invalid value for number of cpus, must be >= 0

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/64204bbfcab4948b. Report an issue: GitHub.