puppetlabs/puppet · error · ArgumentError

%{option} is not valid for an option argument

Error message

%{option} is not valid for an option argument

What it means

Error "%{option} is not valid for an option argument" thrown in puppetlabs/puppet.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/interface/option.rb:50

        # faces for dns alt names. Puppet defines 'dns_alt_names', those
        # faces include 'dns-alt-names'.  We can't get rid of 'dns-alt-names'
        # yet, so we need to do our duplicate checking on the untranslated
        # version of the option.
        # jeffweiss 17 april 2012
        name = optparse_to_optionname(item)
        if Puppet.settings.include? name then
          raise ArgumentError, _("%{option}: already defined in puppet") % { option: item.inspect }
        end

        dup = dups[name]
        if dup
          raise ArgumentError, _("%{option}: duplicates existing alias %{duplicate} in %{parent}") %
                               { option: item.inspect, duplicate: dup.inspect, parent: @parent }
        else
          dups[name] = item
        end
      else
        raise ArgumentError, _("%{option} is not valid for an option argument") % { option: item.inspect }
      end
    end

    if @optparse.empty? then
      raise ArgumentError, _("No option declarations found while building")
    end

    # Now, infer the name from the options; we prefer the first long option as
    # the name, rather than just the first option.
    @name = optparse_to_name(@optparse.find do |a| a =~ /^--/ end || @optparse.first)
    @aliases = @optparse.map { |o| optparse_to_name(o) }

    # Do we take an argument?  If so, are we consistent about it, because
    # incoherence here makes our life super-difficult, and we can more easily
    # relax this rule later if we find a valid use case for it. --daniel 2011-03-30
    @argument = @optparse.any? { |o| o =~ /[ =]/ }
    if @argument and !@optparse.all? { |o| o =~ /[ =]/ } then
      raise ArgumentError, _("Option %{name} is inconsistent about taking an argument") % { name: @name }

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at lib/puppet/interface/option.rb:50 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c69d347168e15224. Report an issue: GitHub.