puppetlabs/puppet · error · ArgumentError

field 'data_provider' contains non-alphanumeric characters

Error message

field 'data_provider' contains non-alphanumeric characters

What it means

Puppet::ModuleTool::Metadata#validate_data_provider checks the legacy 'data_provider' field of metadata.json when present: as a String it must match ^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_]*$. This branch fires when the string starts with a letter (or generally matches the start rule) but contains characters outside letters/digits/underscore — e.g. hyphens, dots, or slashes.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/module_tool/metadata.rb:210

    # Validates that the version string can be parsed as per SemVer.
    def validate_version(version)
      return if SemanticPuppet::Version.valid?(version)

      err = _("version string cannot be parsed as a valid Semantic Version")
      raise ArgumentError, _("Invalid 'version' field in metadata.json: %{err}") % { err: err }
    end

    # Validates that the given _value_ is a symbolic name that starts with a letter
    # and then contains only letters, digits, or underscore. Will raise an ArgumentError
    # if that's not the case.
    #
    # @param value [Object] The value to be tested
    def validate_data_provider(value)
      if value.is_a?(String)
        unless value =~ /^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_]*$/
          if value =~ /^[a-zA-Z]/
            raise ArgumentError, _("field 'data_provider' contains non-alphanumeric characters")
          else
            raise ArgumentError, _("field 'data_provider' must begin with a letter")
          end
        end
      else
        raise ArgumentError, _("field 'data_provider' must be a string")
      end
    end

    # Validates that the version range can be parsed by Semantic.
    def validate_version_range(version_range)
      SemanticPuppet::VersionRange.parse(version_range)
    rescue ArgumentError => e
      raise ArgumentError, _("Invalid 'version_range' field in metadata.json: %{err}") % { err: e }
    end
  end
end

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

1. Use an underscored identifier: "data_provider": "hiera_v5" instead of "hiera-v5"
2. If you no longer use the data provider feature, delete the field entirely — it is optional and deprecated
3. Use one of the bare built-in names like 'hiera' where applicable

Example fix

// before - metadata.json
"data_provider": "custom-data",

// after
"data_provider": "custom_data",

value = JSON.parse(File.read('metadata.json'))['data_provider']
if value.is_a?(String) && value !~ /\A[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_]*\Z/ && value =~ /\A[a-zA-Z]/
  abort "data_provider '#{value}' must contain only letters, digits, and underscores"
end

begin
  Puppet::ModuleTool::Metadata.from_hash('data_provider' => raw)
rescue ArgumentError => e
  raise unless e.message =~ /data_provider.*non-alphanumeric/
  raw = raw.tr('^a-zA-Z0-9_', '_')  # 'hiera-v5' -> 'hiera_v5'
  retry
end

When it happens

Trigger: A metadata.json containing "data_provider": "hiera-v5" or "my.provider" — the leading letter passes the start check but '-' or '.' trips the non-alphanumeric branch at line 210.

Common situations: Setting data_provider to a hyphenated provider name; migrating Puppet 3/4 environment data providers where values like 'hiera' vs 'hiera_data' differ; stale data_provider entries left after the feature was deprecated.

Related errors

• field 'data_provider' must begin with a letter
• field 'data_provider' must be a string
• Dependency conflict for %{module_name}: Dependency %{name} w
• Invalid 'name' field in metadata.json: %{err}
• Invalid 'version' field in metadata.json: %{err}

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b2ef4b1ace8d1398. Report an issue: GitHub.