puppetlabs/puppet · error · ArgumentError

Could not find %{request} to destroy

Error message

Could not find %{request} to destroy

What it means

The memory terminus (used in tests and short-lived in-process caches) keeps instances in a hash keyed by request.key. destroy raises ArgumentError 'Could not find <key> to destroy' unless the key was previously saved via save; unlike the disk termini it does not emulate success on missing entries, so double destroys fail loudly.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/indirector/memory.rb:16

# frozen_string_literal: true

require_relative '../../puppet/indirector/terminus'

# Manage a memory-cached list of instances.
class Puppet::Indirector::Memory < Puppet::Indirector::Terminus
  def initialize
    clear
  end

  def clear
    @instances = {}
  end

  def destroy(request)
    raise ArgumentError, _("Could not find %{request} to destroy") % { request: request.key } unless @instances.include?(request.key)

    @instances.delete(request.key)
  end

  def find(request)
    @instances[request.key]
  end

  def search(request)
    found_keys = @instances.keys.find_all { |key| key.include?(request.key) }
    found_keys.collect { |key| @instances[key] }
  end

  def head(request)
    !find(request).nil?
  end

  def save(request)

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

1. Guard with find first: only destroy when terminus.find(request) returns a value.
2. Rescue ArgumentError when cleanup is best-effort (e.g. in test teardown).
3. Use clear to wipe all state instead of destroying keys one by one.
4. Fix hook ordering so cleanup does not execute twice for the same key.

Example fix

# before
after { terminus.destroy(req) } # raises when the key was never saved / already destroyed

# after
after { terminus.destroy(req) if terminus.find(req) }

req = Puppet::Indirector::Request.new(indirection.name, :destroy, key, nil)
terminus.destroy(req) if terminus.find(req)

When it happens

Trigger: Calling destroy twice for the same key; destroying after clear; rspec before/after hooks that both clean up; shared examples where the save step never ran.

Common situations: Test suites with double-running cleanup hooks; retry logic that assumes idempotent destroy; fixtures resetting state between hooks while the subject still holds stale references.

Related errors

• Listing remote file buckets is not allowed
• Invalid terminus name %{terminus_class}
• Could not find terminus %{terminus_class} for indirection %{
• Could not find terminus %{terminus_class} for indirection %{
• Could not read MessagePack data for %{indirection} %{key}: %

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/05606a0ad5957bdf. Report an issue: GitHub.