--collector.qdisk.device-include and…

Error message

--collector.qdisk.device-include and --collector.qdisc.device-include are mutually exclusive

What it means

NewQdiscStatCollector refuses to start when both the deprecated --collector.qdisk.device-include flag and the current --collector.qdisc.device-include flag are set, since it cannot decide which device filter to use. The old qdisk spelling is kept as a deprecated alias that auto-migrates to the new flag, but only when the new flag is empty; otherwise the constructor returns this error.

Solutions

Remove the deprecated --collector.qdisk.device-include flag and keep only --collector.qdisc.device-include
Migrate all occurrences of qdisk.device-include to qdisc.device-include in deployment configs
Restart node_exporter and verify it starts without the error

Example fix

// before
node_exporter --collector.qdisk.device-include=eth0 --collector.qdisc.device-include=eth1
// after
node_exporter --collector.qdisc.device-include=eth1

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

func validateQdiscFlags(oldInclude, newInclude string) error {
	if oldInclude != "" && newInclude != "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("set only one of --collector.qdisk.device-include (deprecated) or --collector.qdisc.device-include")
	}
	return nil
}

Try / catch

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

Prevention

Standardize on the new --collector.qdisc.* flags and purge qdisk spellings from all configs
Keep collector flags in one config layer to avoid duplicates
Audit systemd units and Helm args with `grep -R qdisk` after upgrades

When it happens

Trigger: Starting node_exporter with both --collector.qdisk.device-include=<v> and --collector.qdisc.device-include=<v> set to non-empty values; NewQdiscStatCollector returns this error before creating the collector.

Common situations: Upgrading from an older exporter config that used the qdisk spelling while a deployment tool (systemd unit, Helm chart, args file) already added the new qdisc flag, leaving both set.

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/a69a0eb6564dbb16. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at collector/qdisc_linux.go:61

	collectorQdisc                 = kingpin.Flag("collector.qdisc.fixtures", "test fixtures to use for qdisc collector end-to-end testing").Default("").String()
	collectorQdiscDeviceInclude    = kingpin.Flag("collector.qdisc.device-include", "Regexp of qdisc devices to include (mutually exclusive to device-exclude).").String()
	oldCollectorQdiskDeviceInclude = kingpin.Flag("collector.qdisk.device-include", "DEPRECATED: Use collector.qdisc.device-include").Hidden().String()
	collectorQdiscDeviceExclude    = kingpin.Flag("collector.qdisc.device-exclude", "Regexp of qdisc devices to exclude (mutually exclusive to device-include).").String()
	oldCollectorQdiskDeviceExclude = kingpin.Flag("collector.qdisk.device-exclude", "DEPRECATED: Use collector.qdisc.device-exclude").Hidden().String()
)

func init() {
	registerCollector("qdisc", defaultDisabled, NewQdiscStatCollector)
}

// NewQdiscStatCollector returns a new Collector exposing queuing discipline statistics.
func NewQdiscStatCollector(logger *slog.Logger) (Collector, error) {
	if *oldCollectorQdiskDeviceInclude != "" {
		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(

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