quarkusio/quarkus · error · IllegalStateException

Unexpected character at <lineNumber>:<pos>, current state is

Error message

Unexpected character at <lineNumber>:<pos>, current state is <state.name()>

What it means

RedisDataLoader parses a RESP-like text script where each line is a command followed by whitespace-separated arguments. The parser encountered a character it cannot process in the current state and throws IllegalStateException with line, column and state to pinpoint the malformed token.

Source

Thrown at extensions/redis-client/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/redis/runtime/client/RedisDataLoader.java:111

                    request.arg(getAndClear(current));
                    state = State.ARGUMENTS;
                }
            } else if (state == State.PARAM_IN_QUOTES) {
                if (c != '\'') {
                    current.append(c);
                } else {
                    request.arg(getAndClear(current));
                    state = State.ARGUMENTS;
                }
            } else if (state == State.PARAM_IN_DOUBLE_QUOTES) {
                if (c != '"') {
                    current.append(c);
                } else {
                    request.arg(getAndClear(current));
                    state = State.ARGUMENTS;
                }
            } else {
                throw new IllegalStateException("Unexpected character at " + lineNumber + ":" + pos
                        + ", current state is " + state.name());
            }
        }

        if (current.length() > 0) {
            if (state == State.COMMAND) {
                request = Request.cmd(Command.create(getAndClear(current)));
            } else if (state == State.PARAM) {
                request.arg(getAndClear(current));
            } else {
                throw new IllegalStateException("End of line unexpected at " + lineNumber + ":" + pos);
            }
        }

        return request;

    }

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

  1. Open the file at the reported line:column and fix or remove the offending character
  2. Keep each command on a single line: command name followed by space-separated arguments, no inline comments or stray quotes
  3. Escape or remove special characters (quotes, commas, brackets) from argument values
  4. Regenerate the import file from a known-good export or official seed script

Example fix

// before (import.redis)
SET mykey "hello world" // inline comment breaks parser
// after
SET mykey hello-world // one command per line, plain args
# comments only on their own line if supported by your file format
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

List<String> lines = java.nio.file.Files.readAllLines(java.nio.file.Path.of(path));
for (int i = 0; i < lines.size(); i++) {
    String line = lines.get(i).trim();
    if (!line.isEmpty() && !line.matches("[A-Za-z]+(\s+[^\s\"',]+)*")) {
        throw new IllegalStateException("Suspicious syntax at line " + (i + 1) + ": " + line);
    }
}

Try / catch

try {
    RedisDataLoader.load(vertx, redis, path);
} catch (IllegalStateException e) {
    log.error("Malformed import script: " + e.getMessage());
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: A line in the import file contains an invalid character such as a stray quote, comma, or comment marker in the wrong position; arguments containing unquoted spaces or special characters the simple tokenizer cannot handle; edited/corrupted export file.

Common situations: Hand-editing import scripts and introducing syntax errors; pasting RESP output with binary prefixes (*) into the text loader; shell escaping issues leaving quotes in the file; comments (# or //) placed mid-line where they are not supported.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8ff3ee9db184ab35. Report an issue: GitHub.