oracle/graal · error · InvalidArgumentException

The argument '%s' could not be parsed: No value was provided

Error message

The argument '%s' could not be parsed: No value was provided.

What it means

Thrown by ValuedArgument.parse when an option appears as the very last token in '--name' form: the parser advances past it, sees offset >= args.length, and cannot find the following value token. It is an InvalidArgumentException('No value was provided.') for that argument.

Source

Thrown at compiler/src/org.graalvm.profdiff/src/org/graalvm/profdiff/args/ValuedArgument.java:80

        set = true;
        value = defaultValue;
    }

    /**
     * Gets the value of the argument.
     */
    public T getValue() {
        return value;
    }

    @Override
    public int parse(String[] args, int offsetBase) throws InvalidArgumentException {
        int offset = offsetBase;
        if (isOptionArgument()) {
            if (args[offset].equals(getName())) {
                ++offset;
                if (offset >= args.length) {
                    throw new InvalidArgumentException(getName(), "No value was provided.");
                }
                value = parseValue(args[offset]);
            } else {
                assert args[offset].startsWith(getName() + EQUAL_SIGN);
                int equalSignIndex = args[offset].indexOf(EQUAL_SIGN);
                assert equalSignIndex != -1;
                value = parseValue(args[offset].substring(equalSignIndex + 1));
            }
        } else {
            value = parseValue(args[offset]);
        }
        set = true;
        return offset + 1;
    }

    /**
     * Parse the argument value from a string.
     *

View on GitHub (pinned to a66e9ccd1d)

Solutions

Append the value token after the option ('--experiment2 out2') or use the '--name=value' form, which cannot be split.
Check empty/undefined shell variables used as option values; default them explicitly.
Verify multi-line commands keep the continuation character on every line but the last.

Example fix

# before
mx profdiff normal-tier --experiment1 out1 --experiment2
# after
mx profdiff normal-tier --experiment1 out1 --experiment2 out2

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Prefer '--name=value' form; if using two tokens, verify the value token exists
if (args[args.length - 1].startsWith("--") && !args[args.length - 1].contains("=")) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Trailing option without value: " + args[args.length - 1]);
}

Try / catch

try {
    parser.parse(args);
} catch (InvalidArgumentException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("No value was provided")) { /* append the missing value token */ }
}

Prevention

Use '--name=value' in scripts so value and option cannot be separated.
Default empty shell variables explicitly: ${VAR:-fallback}.

When it happens

Trigger: Ending the command line with a value-taking option that has no value: '... --experiment2'. Also when a trailing value was consumed by the shell (unquoted expansion of an empty variable) so the token never reaches Java.

Common situations: Truncated command lines (copy-paste cut off), empty environment variables expanding to nothing ('--opt $EMPTY_VAR'), or line-continuation backslashes missing so the value lands on the next line as a separate command.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of oracle/graal@a66e9ccd1d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b60d94a88b830075. Report an issue: GitHub.