phacility/phabricator · warning · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Specify a collector with

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.

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.

Understand the failure class

Background: "no subcommand specified" and "... is required": CLI errors when a required argument is missing — this error's family across 13 libraries.

Related errors

• Choose a policy with
• Choose which capabilities to unlock with "--view"…
• No such collector " ". Choose a valid collector: .
• Options " ", " " and " " represent mutually exclusive ways…
• Select a new priority for selected tasks with "--priority".

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

Appendix: 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];
  }

}

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