pinpoint-apm/pinpoint · error · IllegalArgumentException

the key must contain ':' key:

Error message

the key must contain ':' key:

What it means

RedisKVPubChannelProvider.getPubChannel expects pub-channel keys of the form '<duration>:<channelName>' (e.g. PT10M:myChannel), split by KeyValueTokenizer.tokenize(key, ":"). If the key has no ':' the tokenization fails and it throws IllegalArgumentException, because the expiry Duration cannot be parsed from the key.

Solutions

1. Pass the key as '<ISO-8601 duration>:<channel>' — e.g. PT10M:myChannel
2. Add the missing ':' and Duration prefix at the call site that builds the key
3. Pre-check key.contains(":") before calling getPubChannel

Example fix

// before
PubChannel ch = provider.getPubChannel("myChannel");
// after
PubChannel ch = provider.getPubChannel("PT10M:myChannel");

if (key == null || !key.contains(":")) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("pub channel key must be '<duration>:<channel>'");
}

try { PubChannel ch = provider.getPubChannel(key); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { log.warn("bad pub channel key: {}", key); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling getPubChannel with a key lacking the ':' separator — e.g. getPubChannel("myChannel") instead of getPubChannel("PT10M:myChannel").

Common situations: Callers constructing the key from just the channel name; config where the duration prefix was dropped; refactor that changed the key format contract between producer and provider.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

Related errors

• the key must contain ':' key:

AI-assisted analysis of pinpoint-apm/pinpoint@744c3d3075 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9f48c3cfdc47fb7f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at redis/src/main/java/com/navercorp/pinpoint/channel/redis/kv/RedisKVPubChannelProvider.java:41

import java.time.Duration;
import java.util.Objects;

/**
 * @author youngjin.kim2
 */
class RedisKVPubChannelProvider implements PubChannelProvider {

    private final RedisTemplate<String, String> template;

    RedisKVPubChannelProvider(RedisTemplate<String, String> template) {
        this.template = Objects.requireNonNull(template, "template");
    }

    @Override
    public PubChannel getPubChannel(String key) {
        KeyValueTokenizer.KeyValue keyValue = KeyValueTokenizer.tokenize(key, ":");
        if (keyValue == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("the key must contain ':' key:" + key);
        }
        Duration expire = Duration.parse(keyValue.getKey());
        return new RedisKVPubChannel(this.template, expire.toMillis(), keyValue.getValue());
    }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to 744c3d3075)