puppetlabs/puppet · error · ArgumentError

Invalid record type %{record_type}

Error message

Invalid record type %{record_type}

What it means

A Puppet::Util::FileParsing FileRecord is created internally by record_line (type :record) and text_line (type :text); initialize interns the type and accepts only those two, raising ArgumentError otherwise. Hitting it means FileRecord.new was called directly with a non-standard type — the record_line/text_line DSL cannot produce this error.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/util/fileparsing.rb:66

      end
    end

    def initialize(type,
                   absent: nil,
                   block_eval: nil,
                   fields: nil,
                   joiner: nil,
                   match: nil,
                   optional: nil,
                   post_parse: nil,
                   pre_gen: nil,
                   rollup: nil,
                   rts: nil,
                   separator: nil,
                   to_line: nil,
                   &block)
      @type = type.intern
      raise ArgumentError, _("Invalid record type %{record_type}") % { record_type: @type } unless [:record, :text].include?(@type)

      @absent = absent
      @block_eval = block_eval
      @joiner = joiner
      @match = match
      @rollup = rollup if rollup
      @rts = rts
      @separator = separator

      self.fields = fields if fields
      self.optional = optional if optional
      self.post_parse = post_parse if post_parse
      self.pre_gen = pre_gen if pre_gen
      self.to_line = to_line if to_line

      if self.type == :record
        # Now set defaults.
        self.absent ||= ""

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

1. Use the record_line / text_line DSL, which always passes a valid type
2. If constructing FileRecord directly, pass exactly :record or :text
3. Model format quirks with :process / :to_line / :post_parse hooks on a legal record instead of a new type

Example fix

# before
FileRecord.new(:multiline, fields: %i[content])
# => ArgumentError: Invalid record type multiline

# after
# use the DSL, which only creates legal types
record_line :chunk, fields: %i[content]

type = :record
raise ArgumentError, 'bad type' unless %i[record text].include?(type)
FileRecord.new(type, fields: %w[a b])

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Puppet::Util::FileParsing::FileRecord.new(:stream, fields: [...]) or a custom new_line_type wrapper passing an invented type such as :multiline or :csv, instead of going through the DSL.

Common situations: Custom providers copying Puppet internals and inventing new record kinds; monkey-patches that register record types without updating the parse dispatch.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• Somehow got invalid line type %{record_type}
• Cannot have fields named %{name}
• Field '%{field}' is required
• Process record type %{record_name} returned non-hash
• No record types defined; cannot parse lines

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/220706d166cdd5d3. Report an issue: GitHub.