pulumi/pulumi · error

failed to parse --before as duration or timestamp: %w

Error message

failed to parse --before as duration or timestamp: %w

What it means

The --before flag of `pulumi logs remove` (pkg/cmd/pulumi/logs/remove.go:139) accepts a Go duration (e.g. '24h') or a timestamp (RFC3339, date, or Unix). The value is passed to parseSince (pkg/cmd/pulumi/logs/logs.go:226), which uses the moby-derived getTimestamp parser; when neither format matches, the underlying error is wrapped with this message.

Source

Thrown at pkg/cmd/pulumi/logs/remove.go:139

	if !all && before == "" && stackName == "" {
		if !cmdutil.Interactive() {
			return nil, errors.New(
				"cannot prompt for a log file in non-interactive mode; " +
					"pass --all, --before, or --stack")
		}
		entry, err := chooseLogToRemove(logsDir)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		return []logEntry{entry}, nil
	}

	var beforeTime *time.Time
	if before != "" {
		var err error
		beforeTime, err = parseSince(before, time.Now())
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse --before as duration or timestamp: %w", err)
		}
	}

	entries, err := listLogs(logsDir)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	return filterLogs(entries, stackName, beforeTime), nil
}

func filterLogs(entries []logEntry, stackName string, beforeTime *time.Time) []logEntry {
	var matches []logEntry
	for _, e := range entries {
		if stackName != "" && e.stack != stackName {
			continue
		}
		if beforeTime != nil && !e.timestamp.Before(*beforeTime) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 793f7b2e16)

Solutions

1. Use a Go duration such as 24h, 72h, or 30m (no 'd' or 'w' units)
2. Use an absolute timestamp: RFC3339 (2026-01-01T00:00:00Z), a plain date (2026-01-01), or a Unix epoch value
3. Quote the value in the shell if it contains spaces or special characters
4. Verify with `pulumi logs --since <same-value>` which accepts the identical format and shows the same parse error

Example fix

# before
pulumi logs remove --before 30d
# after
pulumi logs remove --before 720h   # 30 days as a Go duration
# or
pulumi logs remove --before 2026-01-01

# Go-side pre-validation using the same semantics
if _, err := time.ParseDuration(v); err != nil {
    if _, err2 := time.Parse(time.RFC3339, v); err2 != nil {
        if _, _, err3 := time.Parse("2006-01-02", v); err3 != nil {
            return fmt.Errorf("--before must be a Go duration (720h) or timestamp: %v", v)
        }
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: `pulumi logs remove --before <value>` where value fails time.ParseDuration and all timestamp layouts: e.g. --before 24H (uppercase), --before 1d (Go durations have no days), --before yesterday, --before "Jan 1 2026", or a negative range with hyphens that can't parse.

Common situations: Copying '1d' or '2w' from other CLIs that accept day/week units; locale-formatted dates; quotes stripped by shell leaving ambiguous values like 2026-13-45; forgetting that durations are Go-style (h/m/s only).

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• unknown output format %q
• --once must be an ISO 8601 / RFC 3339 timestamp: %w
• --once must be a timestamp in the future
• --once must be an ISO 8601 / RFC 3339 timestamp: %w
• --once must be a timestamp in the future

AI-assisted analysis of pulumi/pulumi@793f7b2e16 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/90c9a674f0e0b879. Report an issue: GitHub.