phacility/phabricator · warning · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Choosing steps with "--importing" conflicts with flags which

Error message

Choosing steps with "--importing" conflicts with flags which select specific steps.

What it means

reparse offers two ways to choose what runs: explicit step flags (`--message`, `--change`, `--publish`) or `--importing`, which runs every step a commit has not completed yet. Combining `--importing` with specific step flags is contradictory — the 'missing steps' set cannot be narrowed to hand-picked steps — so the combination is rejected with this PhutilArgumentUsageException.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/repository/management/PhabricatorRepositoryManagementReparseWorkflow.php:113

      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht('Specify a commit or repository to reparse.'));
    }

    if ($all_from_repo && $reparse_what) {
      $commits = implode(', ', $reparse_what);
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          "Specify a commit or repository to reparse, not both:\n".
          "All from repo: %s\n".
          "Commit(s) to reparse: %s",
          $all_from_repo,
          $commits));
    }

    $any_step = ($reparse_message || $reparse_change || $reparse_publish);

    if ($any_step && $importing) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'Choosing steps with "--importing" conflicts with flags which '.
          'select specific steps.'));
    } else if ($any_step) {
      // OK.
    } else if ($importing) {
      // OK.
    } else if (!$any_step && !$importing) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'Specify which steps to reparse with "--message", "--change", '.
          'and/or "--publish"; or "--importing" to run all missing steps.'));
    }

    $min_timestamp = false;
    if ($min_date) {
      $min_timestamp = strtotime($min_date);

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

For targeted work, drop `--importing` and keep the specific step flags (`--message`, `--change`, `--publish`, combinable).
For catch-up work on partially imported commits, drop the step flags and keep only `--importing`.

Example fix

# before
./bin/repository reparse --all R --importing --message
# Usage exception: Choosing steps with "--importing" conflicts with flags which select specific steps.

# after: run all missing steps
./bin/repository reparse --all R --importing
# or run one specific step everywhere
./bin/repository reparse --all R --message

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# Reject --importing combined with step flags before invoking
if [ "$IMPORTING" = 1 ] && { [ "$MSG" = 1 ] || [ "$CHANGE" = 1 ] || [ "$PUBLISH" = 1 ]; }; then
  echo "--importing cannot be combined with --message/--change/--publish" >&2; exit 2
fi
./bin/repository reparse --all "$REPO" ${MSG:+--message} ${CHANGE:+--change} ${PUBLISH:+--publish} ${IMPORTING:+--importing}

Prevention

Document the two modes (catch-up vs targeted) prominently in internal runbooks.
Have scripts select one mode explicitly and refuse mixed configurations.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `./bin/repository reparse --all R --importing --message` or any invocation where `$any_step` (message/change/publish) is truthy together with `--importing`.

Common situations: Operators adding `--importing` to an existing step-specific command hoping to 'fill in the rest'; copied command lines from runbooks that mixed guidance from both modes.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1e01f5dfe95a420c. Report an issue: GitHub.