micro/go-micro · error

failed to parse client_pool_ttl: %v

Error message

failed to parse client_pool_ttl: %v

What it means

Returned by cmd/cmd.go when the --client_pool_ttl flag value fails time.ParseDuration. PoolTTL controls how long idle connections are kept in the client connection pool, and the CLI rejects any value that is not a valid Go duration string before building the client.

Source

Thrown at cmd/cmd.go:645

		clientOpts = append(clientOpts, client.Retries(r))
	}

	if t := ctx.String("client_request_timeout"); len(t) > 0 {
		d, err := time.ParseDuration(t)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to parse client_request_timeout: %v", t)
		}
		clientOpts = append(clientOpts, client.RequestTimeout(d))
	}

	if r := ctx.Int("client_pool_size"); r > 0 {
		clientOpts = append(clientOpts, client.PoolSize(r))
	}

	if t := ctx.String("client_pool_ttl"); len(t) > 0 {
		d, err := time.ParseDuration(t)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to parse client_pool_ttl: %v", t)
		}
		clientOpts = append(clientOpts, client.PoolTTL(d))
	}

	if t := ctx.String("client_pool_close_timeout"); len(t) > 0 {
		d, err := time.ParseDuration(t)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to parse client_pool_close_timeout: %v", t)
		}
		clientOpts = append(clientOpts, client.PoolCloseTimeout(d))
	}

	// We have some command line opts for the server.
	// Lets set it up
	if len(serverOpts) > 0 {
		if err := (*c.opts.Server).Init(serverOpts...); err != nil {
			logger.Fatalf("Error configuring server: %v", err)
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 24529f1404)

Solutions

1. Use a valid Go duration: 60s, 5m, 1h.
2. Fix unit typos (1min -> 1m, 30sec -> 30s).
3. Verify the value reaching the flag from env/config interpolation is non-empty and unit-suffixed.
4. Remove the flag to use the library default if no custom TTL is needed.

Example fix

// before
--client_pool_ttl 300
// after
--client_pool_ttl 300s

func validDuration(s string) bool { _, err := time.ParseDuration(s); return err == nil }
if !validDuration(poolTTL) { return fmt.Errorf("--client_pool_ttl must be a Go duration like 60s, got %q", poolTTL) }

if _, err := time.ParseDuration(t); err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("invalid client_pool_ttl %q: %v", t, err) }

When it happens

Trigger: Passing --client_pool_ttl with a non-duration value such as --client_pool_ttl 60 (no unit) or --client_pool_ttl 1min (should be 1m).

Common situations: Operators setting pool TTL in plain seconds from monitoring dashboards; templated Helm/env values defaulting to a bare number; confusion between 'm' (minutes) and 'ms' (milliseconds).

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid duration" / "failed to parse duration": why your timeout, interval, or TTL string is rejected and which formats each library accepts — this error's family across 32 libraries.

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• failed to parse client_request_timeout: %v
• failed to parse client_pool_close_timeout: %v
• Cannot use two forms of the same flag: <name> <ff.Name>
• flags not parsed
• agent: ResumeStreamAsk requires a checkpoint

AI-assisted analysis of micro/go-micro@24529f1404 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7172f49529ea6853. Report an issue: GitHub.