puppetlabs/puppet · error · Puppet::Error

Error while parsing 'todate'

Error message

Error while parsing 'todate'

What it means

The FileBucket list action parses the todate option with Ruby's Time.parse; the default is Time.now formatted '%F %T'. If the string is not a recognized time expression, the ArgumentError from Time.parse is re-raised as Puppet::Error "Error while parsing 'todate'". This is pure client-side input validation, not a server problem.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/indirector/file_bucket_file/file.rb:55

          Puppet.info _("FileBucket read %{checksum}") % { checksum: checksum }
          model.new(Puppet::FileSystem.binread(contents_file))
        end
      else
        nil
      end
    end

    def list(request)
      if request.remote?
        raise Puppet::Error, _("Listing remote file buckets is not allowed")
      end

      fromdate = request.options[:fromdate] || "0:0:0 1-1-1970"
      todate = request.options[:todate] || Time.now.strftime("%F %T")
      begin
        to = Time.parse(todate)
      rescue ArgumentError
        raise Puppet::Error, _("Error while parsing 'todate'")
      end
      begin
        from = Time.parse(fromdate)
      rescue ArgumentError
        raise Puppet::Error, _("Error while parsing 'fromdate'")
      end
      # Setting hash's default value to [], needed by the following loop
      bucket = Hash.new { [] }
      msg = ''.dup
      # Get all files with mtime between 'from' and 'to'
      Pathname.new(request.options[:bucket_path]).find { |item|
        next unless item.file? and item.basename.to_s == "paths"

        filenames = item.read.strip.split("\n")
        filestat = Time.parse(item.stat.mtime.to_s)
        next unless from <= filestat and filestat <= to

        filenames.each do |filename|

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

1. Use the same explicit format as the default: 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS', e.g. --todate '2024-12-31 23:59:59'.
2. Omit --todate entirely; it defaults to the current time.
3. Quote the whole value in the shell so it arrives as one argument.
4. Pre-validate scripted dates with Time.parse in a rescue block before invoking the CLI.

Example fix

# before
puppet filebucket list --fromdate "2024-01-01" --todate not-a-date
# Error: Error while parsing 'todate'

# after
puppet filebucket list --fromdate "2024-01-01" --todate "2024-12-31 23:59:59"

require 'time'

def parseable_date?(value)
  Time.parse(value)
  true
rescue ArgumentError
  false
end

abort 'invalid --todate, expected YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' unless parseable_date?(todate)

When it happens

Trigger: Passing an unparseable --todate to 'puppet filebucket list': values like 'not-a-date', '2024/13/45', or a value mangled by shell word-splitting so only a fragment reaches the option.

Common situations: Locale-ambiguous or day/month-swapped dates; dates copied from docs with stray characters; unquoted values containing spaces in scripts; date strings generated from empty variables.

Related errors

• Error while parsing 'fromdate'
• Need exactly two arguments: filebucket diff <file_a> <file_b
• Could not back up %{file}: %{detail}
• Diff is not supported on this platform
• Please provide a file or checksum to diff with

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8cf68804e8d41262. Report an issue: GitHub.