pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · Error

[pentaho/messages!] Bundle path argument cannot be a single…

Error message

[pentaho/messages!] Bundle path argument cannot be a single '/'.

What it means

The pentaho/messages loader plugin (server-side i18n) mirrors defaultService: in __getBundleId, a bundlePath starting with '/' is stripped and used as an absolute bundle module id; an empty remainder (a lone '/') produces an Error since no bundle id can be derived. It is raised while computing the bundleMid used by the plugin.

Solutions

1. Supply a concrete bundle module id, e.g. pentaho/messages!/pentaho/common/messages
2. Trace the interpolation producing the empty path and fix the source value
3. Validate bundlePath non-empty before building the loader module id

Example fix

// before
var dep = 'pentaho/messages!/' + serverBundlePath; // serverBundlePath === ''
// after
if (!serverBundlePath) serverBundlePath = 'pentaho/common/messages';
var dep = 'pentaho/messages!/' + serverBundlePath;

var path = String(bundlePath || '');
if (path === '/' || !path) throw new Error('pentaho/messages! requires a non-empty bundle path');

function isUsableServerBundlePath(p) { return typeof p === 'string' && p.length > 0 && p !== '/'; }

try { var bundle = require('pentaho/messages!' + path); } catch (e) { if (e.message.indexOf('cannot be a single') >= 0) { bundle = require('pentaho/messages!./i18n/messages'); } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Requiring 'pentaho/messages!/' or building the dependency string so only '/' follows the '!'; server-side code interpolating an empty bundle path variable.

Common situations: Configuration for a server message bundle missing its path so concatenation yields '/'; copy-paste from i18n! usage with the module part deleted.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

Related errors

• [pentaho/i18n!] Bundle path argument cannot be a single '/'.
• [pentaho/messages!] Bundle path argument cannot be a single…
• [pentaho/messages!] Bundle path argument is invalid
• A module with id ' ' is not defined.
• ERROR_INVALID_ARGUMENT

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d1de597e7b90674e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/core-ui/src/main/resources/app/pentaho/i18n/serverService.js:77

  };

  /**
   * Normalizes the given bundle module identifier.
   *
   * @param {string} bundlePath - The specified bundle path argument.
   * @return {string} The normalized bundle identifier.
   */
  function __getBundleId(bundlePath) {
    var bundleMid;
    if(!bundlePath) {
      // E.g. bundlePath="pentaho/i18n!"
      // Use the default location and bundle.
      bundleMid = "./i18n/messages";
    } else if(bundlePath[0] === "/") {
      // E.g. bundlePath="pentaho/i18n!/pentaho/common/nls/messages"
      // The path is, directly, an absolute module id of a message bundle (without the /).
      bundleMid = bundlePath.substr(1);
      if(!bundleMid) throw new Error("[pentaho/messages!] Bundle path argument cannot be a single '/'.");
    } else if(bundlePath[0] !== "." && bundlePath.indexOf("/") < 0) {

      // the name of a bundle in the default "./i18n" sub-module
      bundleMid = "./i18n/" + bundlePath;
    } else {
      // "pentaho/i18n!./nls/information"
      // The path is, directly, a relative module id of a message bundle
      // Or the path has already been resolved by RequireJS.
      bundleMid = bundlePath;
    }

    return bundleMid;
  }

  /**
   * Gets a bundle info object with the plugin identifier and bundle name,
   * for a given bundle module identifier.
   *

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