What causes "Storage type "%s" is unknown. Supported types are: %s." in phacility/phabricator?

Use exactly one of the two listed values: --to text or --to file

phacility/phabricator · warning · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Storage type " " is unknown. Supported types are: .

Error message

Storage type "%s" is unknown. Supported types are: %s.

What it means

migrate-hunk validates the --to value against the supported hunk storage datatypes, which are exactly DifferentialHunk::DATATYPE_TEXT ('text') and DifferentialHunk::DATATYPE_FILE ('file'). Any other string throws this usage exception listing the accepted values, so the check runs before any hunk is read or written.

Solutions

Use exactly one of the two listed values: --to text or --to file
If unsure which to pick, use --auto instead of --to and let Phabricator choose
Print the supported types from the error message itself; they are authoritative for your installed version
Fix the script variable that produced the bad token (quote it and default it)

Example fix

# before
phabricator/ $ ./bin/differential migrate-hunk --all --to gzip
Usage Exception: Storage type "gzip" is unknown. Supported types are: text, file.

# after
phabricator/ $ ./bin/differential migrate-hunk --all --to file

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Validate the storage type against the supported set before invoking
$supported = array(DifferentialHunk::DATATYPE_TEXT, DifferentialHunk::DATATYPE_FILE); // 'text', 'file'
if (!in_array($to_format, $supported, true)) {
  throw new Exception('Use --to text, --to file, or --auto.');
}

Type guard

function isValidHunkStorageType($type) {
  return in_array($type, array('text', 'file'), true);
}

Try / catch

try {
  $workflow->execute($args);
} catch (PhutilArgumentUsageException $ex) {
  // Unknown storage type: the message lists the accepted values for this
  // installed version; pick one (or --auto) and re-run.
}

Prevention

Remember the datatype vocabulary is only 'text' and 'file'; compression formats are data formats, not --to values
Source the valid list from the error message or the DifferentialHunk constants of your version rather than memory
Use --auto when the distinction is unclear

When it happens

Trigger: Passing --to with an invented or misremembered value (e.g., 'mysql', 's3', 'files', 'gzip', 'database'); passing the data-format name instead of the datatype (formats like 'gzip' are not storage types); typos or shell-expansion artifacts in the argument.

Common situations: Operators confusing the hunk 'data type' (where bytes live: database text vs file storage) with the 'data format' (compression/encoding of the bytes); scripts copied from older or newer versions whose supported lists differ; uninitialized FORMAT variables expanding to an empty or wrong token.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8dfb4c092ecdb53c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/applications/differential/management/PhabricatorDifferentialMigrateHunkWorkflow.php:80

        pht(
          'Options "--to" (to choose a specific storage format) and "--auto" '.
          '(to select a storage format automatically) are mutually '.
          'exclusive.'));
    } else if (!$is_auto && !$storage) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'Use "--to" to choose a storage format, or "--auto" to select a '.
          'format automatically.'));
    }

    $types = array(
      DifferentialHunk::DATATYPE_TEXT,
      DifferentialHunk::DATATYPE_FILE,
    );
    $types = array_fuse($types);
    if (strlen($storage)) {
      if (!isset($types[$storage])) {
        throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
          pht(
            'Storage type "%s" is unknown. Supported types are: %s.',
            $storage,
            implode(', ', array_keys($types))));
      }
    }

    if ($id) {
      $hunk = $this->loadHunk($id);
      $hunks = array($hunk);
    } else {
      $hunks = new LiskMigrationIterator(new DifferentialHunk());
    }

    foreach ($hunks as $hunk) {
      try {
        $this->migrateHunk($hunk, $storage, $is_auto, $is_dry_run);
      } catch (Exception $ex) {

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