puppetlabs/puppet · error · ValidationFailure

Unable to parse '#{ver}' as a string

Error message

Unable to parse '#{ver}' as a string

What it means

Error "Unable to parse '#{ver}' as a string" thrown in puppetlabs/puppet.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/util/package/version/debian.rb:20

module Puppet::Util::Package::Version
  class Debian < Numeric
    include Comparable

    # Version string matching regexes
    REGEX_EPOCH = '(?:([0-9]+):)?'
    # alphanumerics and the characters . + - ~ , starts with a digit, ~ only of debian_revision is present
    REGEX_UPSTREAM_VERSION = '([\.\+~0-9a-zA-Z-]+?)'
    # alphanumerics and the characters + . ~
    REGEX_DEBIAN_REVISION = '(?:-([\.\+~0-9a-zA-Z]*))?'

    REGEX_FULL    = REGEX_EPOCH + REGEX_UPSTREAM_VERSION + REGEX_DEBIAN_REVISION.freeze
    REGEX_FULL_RX = /\A#{REGEX_FULL}\Z/

    class ValidationFailure < ArgumentError; end

    def self.parse(ver)
      raise ValidationFailure, "Unable to parse '#{ver}' as a string" unless ver.is_a?(String)

      match, epoch, upstream_version, debian_revision = *ver.match(REGEX_FULL_RX)

      raise ValidationFailure, "Unable to parse '#{ver}' as a debian version identifier" unless match

      new(epoch.to_i, upstream_version, debian_revision).freeze
    end

    def to_s
      s = @upstream_version
      s = "#{@epoch}:#{s}" if @epoch != 0
      s = "#{s}-#{@debian_revision}" if @debian_revision
      s
    end
    alias inspect to_s

    def eql?(other)
      other.is_a?(self.class) &&

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at lib/puppet/util/package/version/debian.rb:20 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4628bfccf77d318b. Report an issue: GitHub.