phacility/phabricator · warning · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Specify the dumpfile to read with "--input", or use "--live"

Error message

Specify the dumpfile to read with "--input", or use "--live" to generate one automatically.

What it means

Thrown by the Phabricator `bin/storage renamespace` workflow when the command provides no dump source: both `--input` (path to an existing mysqldump file) and `--live` (dump the configured database automatically) are empty. Renamespace only rewrites namespace prefixes inside a dump, so it must have one of the two sources before it can do anything. This is a PhutilArgumentUsageException: the invocation is invalid and no work was performed.

Source

Thrown at src/infrastructure/storage/management/workflow/PhabricatorStorageManagementRenamespaceWorkflow.php:63

            'name' => 'overwrite',
            'help' => pht(
              'With __--output__, write to disk even if the file already '.
              'exists.'),
          ),
        ));
  }

  protected function isReadOnlyWorkflow() {
    return true;
  }

  public function didExecute(PhutilArgumentParser $args) {
    $console = PhutilConsole::getConsole();

    $input = $args->getArg('input');
    $is_live = $args->getArg('live');
    if (!strlen($input) && !$is_live) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'Specify the dumpfile to read with "--input", or use "--live" to '.
          'generate one automatically.'));
    }

    $from = $args->getArg('from');
    if (!strlen($from)) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'Specify namespace to rename from with %s.',
          '--from'));
    }

    $to = $args->getArg('to');
    if (!strlen($to)) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'Specify namespace to rename to with %s.',

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

1. Pass `--input /path/to/dump.sql` pointing at an existing mysqldump export.
2. Or pass `--live` so the workflow dumps the configured database itself before renaming namespaces.
3. Run `./bin/storage help renamespace` to confirm the flag names for your Phabricator version.

Example fix

# before
./bin/storage renamespace --from phabricator --to mycompany

# after
mysqldump --all-databases > /tmp/dump.sql
./bin/storage renamespace --input /tmp/dump.sql --from phabricator --to mycompany --output /tmp/renamed.sql

if [ -z "$DUMP_FILE" ] && [ "$LIVE" != 1 ]; then
  echo 'error: set DUMP_FILE or LIVE=1 as the dump source' >&2
  exit 2
fi
./bin/storage renamespace \
  ${DUMP_FILE:+--input "$DUMP_FILE"} \
  ${LIVE:+--live} \
  --from "$FROM" --to "$TO"

When it happens

Trigger: Running `./bin/storage renamespace --from X --to Y` with neither `--input` nor `--live`, so strlen($input) == 0 and $is_live is false at the check in didExecute().

Common situations: Copying a renamespace example from docs or a wiki that omits the dump source; assuming the tool operates on the live database by default; a migration script where the dump-export step was skipped or failed silently.

Related errors

• Specify namespace to rename from with %s.
• Specify namespace to rename to with %s.
• The "--overwrite" flag can only be used alongside "--output"
• Output file "%s" already exists. Use "--overwrite" to overwr
• Select which leases you want to release. See "--help" for gu

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4f6f49770448cf76. Report an issue: GitHub.