collector.qdisc.device-include and…

Error message

collector.qdisc.device-include and collector.qdisc.device-exclude are mutaly exclusive

What it means

NewQdiscStatCollector rejects a configuration where both --collector.qdisc.device-include and --collector.qdisc.device-exclude are set: the qdisc collector supports either an allowlist or a denylist, not both at once. The message contains an upstream typo ('mutaly exclusive').

Solutions

Keep only device-include (allowlist semantics) or only device-exclude (denylist semantics)
Express the combined intent as a single include regex or a single exclude regex
Restart node_exporter with only one of the two flags

Example fix

// before
node_exporter --collector.qdisc.device-include='eth[0-9]+' --collector.qdisc.device-exclude=eth9
// after
node_exporter --collector.qdisc.device-include='eth[0-8]'

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

func validateQdiscFilterMode(include, exclude string) error {
	if include != "" && exclude != "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("--collector.qdisc.device-include and --collector.qdisc.device-exclude are mutually exclusive; choose one filter mode")
	}
	return nil
}

Try / catch

c, err := NewQdiscStatCollector(logger)
if err != nil {
	logger.Error("qdisc collector disabled", "err", err)
}

Prevention

Decide on allowlist (include) or denylist (exclude) semantics per environment, never both
Fold 'exclude one device from an allowlist' into the include regex itself
Document the chosen filter mode in the deployment config

When it happens

Trigger: Starting node_exporter with both --collector.qdisc.device-include=<v> and --collector.qdisc.device-exclude=<v> non-empty, after the deprecated-flag checks passed.

Common situations: Operator tries to allowlist most devices and additionally exclude a few in one invocation; args composed from multiple config sources accumulate both flags.

Understand the failure class

Background: "mutually exclusive" flag errors: what "can't supply both nx and xx", "--raw is not compatible with -i" and "cannot be used with" mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of prometheus/node_exporter@17ddd77c59 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b74b7fb5fa7eb4a5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at collector/qdisc_linux.go:75

		if *collectorQdiscDeviceInclude == "" {
			logger.Warn("--collector.qdisk.device-include is DEPRECATED and will be removed in 2.0.0, use --collector.qdisc.device-include")
			*collectorQdiscDeviceInclude = *oldCollectorQdiskDeviceInclude
		} else {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("--collector.qdisk.device-include and --collector.qdisc.device-include are mutually exclusive")
		}
	}

	if *oldCollectorQdiskDeviceExclude != "" {
		if *collectorQdiscDeviceExclude == "" {
			logger.Warn("--collector.qdisk.device-exclude is DEPRECATED and will be removed in 2.0.0, use --collector.qdisc.device-exclude")
			*collectorQdiscDeviceExclude = *oldCollectorQdiskDeviceExclude
		} else {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("--collector.qdisk.device-exclude and --collector.qdisc.device-exclude are mutually exclusive")
		}
	}

	if *collectorQdiscDeviceExclude != "" && *collectorQdiscDeviceInclude != "" {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("collector.qdisc.device-include and collector.qdisc.device-exclude are mutaly exclusive")
	}

	return &qdiscStatCollector{
		bytes: typedDesc{prometheus.NewDesc(
			prometheus.BuildFQName(namespace, "qdisc", "bytes_total"),
			"Number of bytes sent.",
			[]string{"device", "kind"}, nil,
		), prometheus.CounterValue},
		packets: typedDesc{prometheus.NewDesc(
			prometheus.BuildFQName(namespace, "qdisc", "packets_total"),
			"Number of packets sent.",
			[]string{"device", "kind"}, nil,
		), prometheus.CounterValue},
		drops: typedDesc{prometheus.NewDesc(
			prometheus.BuildFQName(namespace, "qdisc", "drops_total"),
			"Number of packets dropped.",
			[]string{"device", "kind"}, nil,
		), prometheus.CounterValue},

View on GitHub (pinned to 17ddd77c59)