phacility/phabricator · warning · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Specify a collector with "%s". Valid collectors are: %s.

Error message

Specify a collector with "%s". Valid collectors are: %s.

What it means

Every garbage-collector management workflow resolves its target collector through getCollector($const); when no --collector argument was passed the constant is empty and this usage exception is thrown, embedding the sorted list of valid collector constants. It fires before any configuration is read or modified.

Source

Thrown at src/infrastructure/daemon/garbagecollector/management/PhabricatorGarbageCollectorManagementWorkflow.php:14

<?php

abstract class PhabricatorGarbageCollectorManagementWorkflow
  extends PhabricatorManagementWorkflow {

  protected function getCollector($const) {
    $collectors = PhabricatorGarbageCollector::getAllCollectors();

    $collector_list = array_keys($collectors);
    sort($collector_list);
    $collector_list = implode(', ', $collector_list);

    if (!$const) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'Specify a collector with "%s". Valid collectors are: %s.',
          '--collector',
          $collector_list));
    }

    if (empty($collectors[$const])) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'No such collector "%s". Choose a valid collector: %s.',
          $const,
          $collector_list));
    }

    return $collectors[$const];
  }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

1. Re-run with --collector <CONST> using a name from the list printed in the message.
2. Script authors should require or default the collector variable before invoking the workflow.

Example fix

# before
bin/garbagecollector set-policy --days 30
# after
bin/garbagecollector set-policy --collector <collector-from-message> --days 30

if (!strlen((string)$collector_const)) {
  // require --collector before running the workflow
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running bin/garbagecollector set-policy (or a sibling workflow) with no --collector flag at all.

Common situations: Operators exploring the tool for the first time; scripts that parameterize the collector but pass an empty variable because it was never set.

Related errors

• Choose a policy with "%s", "%s" or "%s".
• You must specify the path to a public keyfile with %s.
• You must specify the path to a pkcs8 keyfile with %s.
• You must specify the username of the account to recover.
• You can only recover the username for one account.

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f2ecb45ada59fca5. Report an issue: GitHub.