linera-io/linera-protocol · error · anyhow

For RocksDB, the formatting has to be rocksdb:directory or r

Error message

For RocksDB, the formatting has to be rocksdb:directory or rocksdb:directory:spawn_mode:namespace

What it means

Raised while parsing a `rocksdb:` storage configuration in `StorageConfig::from_str` (linera-storage-runtime, rocksdb feature). The string after the `rocksdb:` prefix is empty — no database directory was given. Accepted forms are `rocksdb:<directory>` or `rocksdb:<directory>:<spawn_mode>:<namespace>`.

Source

Thrown at linera-storage-runtime/src/storage_config.rs:138

                bail!("Only allowed protocol is tcp");
            }
            let endpoint = parts[1];
            let port = parts[2];
            let mut endpoint = endpoint.to_string();
            endpoint.push(':');
            endpoint.push_str(port);
            let endpoint = endpoint.to_string();
            let namespace = parts[3].to_string();
            let inner_storage_config = InnerStorageConfig::Service { endpoint };
            return Ok(StorageConfig {
                inner_storage_config,
                namespace,
            });
        }
        #[cfg(feature = "rocksdb")]
        if let Some(s) = input.strip_prefix(ROCKS_DB) {
            if s.is_empty() {
                bail!(
                    "For RocksDB, the formatting has to be rocksdb:directory or rocksdb:directory:spawn_mode:namespace");
            }
            let parts = s.split(':').collect::<Vec<_>>();
            if parts.len() == 1 {
                let path = parts[0].to_string().into();
                let namespace = DEFAULT_NAMESPACE.to_string();
                let spawn_mode = RocksDbSpawnMode::SpawnBlocking;
                let inner_storage_config = InnerStorageConfig::RocksDb { path, spawn_mode };
                return Ok(StorageConfig {
                    inner_storage_config,
                    namespace,
                });
            }
            if parts.len() == 2 || parts.len() == 3 {
                let path = parts[0].to_string().into();
                let spawn_mode_name = parts
                    .get(1)
                    .copied()

View on GitHub (pinned to 6c226ddcb3)

Solutions

1. Provide the database directory: `rocksdb:/tmp/linera-db`
2. Check the variable expansion that produced the empty path

Example fix

# before
--storage rocksdb:

# after
--storage rocksdb:/tmp/linera-db

// Rust: reject an empty rocksdb path before FromStr
if storage_str == "rocksdb:" {
    anyhow::bail!("rocksdb storage needs a directory: rocksdb:/path/to/db");
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing exactly `rocksdb:` as the storage string; templating that substitutes an empty directory variable.

Common situations: Empty env vars or unset script variables feeding the `--storage rocksdb:$DB_PATH` argument.

Related errors

• We should have one, two or three parts
• For DualRocksDbScyllaDb, the formatting has to be dualrocksd
• We should have one genesis config path and one optional name
• For Storage service, the formatting has to be service:endpoi
• We should have one endpoint and one namespace

AI-assisted analysis of linera-io/linera-protocol@6c226ddcb3 (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d867cbc111689da4. Report an issue: GitHub.