quarkusio/quarkus · error · IllegalStateException

unbalanced quotes in

Error message

unbalanced quotes in 

What it means

CommandLineUtil.translateCommandline splits a command-line string into tokens, handling single and double quotes. If the string ends while still inside a quoted section (parser state remains inQuote or inDoubleQuote), it throws IllegalStateException("unbalanced quotes in " + toProcess), because the command line cannot be split unambiguously.

Source

Thrown at core/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/deployment/util/CommandLineUtil.java:102

                    } else if (" ".equals(nextTok)) {
                        if (current.length() != 0) {
                            tokens.add(current.toString());
                            current.setLength(0);
                        }
                    } else {
                        current.append(nextTok);
                        inEscape = "\\".equals(nextTok);
                    }
                    break;
            }
        }

        if (current.length() != 0) {
            tokens.add(current.toString());
        }

        if ((state == inQuote) || (state == inDoubleQuote)) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("unbalanced quotes in " + toProcess);
        }

        return tokens.toArray(new String[tokens.size()]);
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

1. Inspect the string in the exception and close or remove the unmatched quote
2. Prefer passing arguments as a list instead of one quoted string where the config option allows it
3. Escape embedded apostrophes/double quotes consistently (e.g. wrap in double quotes and escape \")
4. Remove smart quotes (‘ ’ “ ”) that some editors insert — they are not recognized as quote delimiters

Example fix

// before
String args = "-Dquarkus.native.additional-build-args=-J-Xmx4g,--verbose 'partial";
// after
String args = "-J-Xmx4g,--verbose"; // quote fully closed, or use list form

static void validateBalancedQuotes(String cmd) {
    boolean inSingle = false, inDouble = false;
    for (char c : cmd.toCharArray()) {
        if (c == '\'' && !inDouble) inSingle = !inSingle;
        else if (c == '"' && !inSingle) inDouble = !inDouble;
    }
    if (inSingle || inDouble) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unbalanced quotes in: " + cmd);
}

try {
    String[] argv = CommandLineUtil.translateCommandline(cmd);
} catch (IllegalStateException e) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Fix quoting in build args: " + e.getMessage(), e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling CommandLineUtil.translateCommandline with a string containing an opening single or double quote that is never closed, e.g. 'docker run -e "FOO=bar bash' — an apostrophe inside a value (don't) also opens an unmatched single quote.

Common situations: quarkus.native.additional-build-args style config where users quote args manually; shell commands copied with a missing trailing quote; Windows paths or values containing apostrophes.

Related errors

• Invalid command line: ${cmdLine}
• Failed to parse Maven command line arguments
• Unexpected end of input: ${str}
• Unexpected character '${str.charAt(pos)}' at position ${pos}
• invalid config ${comment}

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c777bd781cfb8122. Report an issue: GitHub.