quickwit-oss/quickwit · error · anyhow::Error

timestamp field `{timestamp_field_path}` should not end with

Error message

timestamp field `{timestamp_field_path}` should not end with a `.`

What it means

The mirror check of error 64: `validate_timestamp_field` rejects a `timestamp_field` path that ends with a `.`. A trailing dot cannot terminate a valid field name, so the DocMapper builder bails during `try_from`.

Source

Thrown at quickwit/quickwit-doc-mapper/src/doc_mapper/doc_mapper_impl.rs:109

    /// Maximum number of partitions
    max_num_partitions: NonZeroU32,
    /// Defines how unmapped fields should be handle.
    mode: Mode,
    /// User-defined tokenizers.
    tokenizer_entries: Vec<TokenizerEntry>,
    /// Tokenizer manager.
    tokenizer_manager: TokenizerManager,
}

fn validate_timestamp_field(
    timestamp_field_path: &str,
    mapping_root_node: &MappingNode,
) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
    if timestamp_field_path.starts_with('.') || timestamp_field_path.starts_with("\\.") {
        bail!("timestamp field `{timestamp_field_path}` should not start with a `.`");
    }
    if timestamp_field_path.ends_with('.') {
        bail!("timestamp field `{timestamp_field_path}` should not end with a `.`");
    }
    let Some(timestamp_field_type) =
        mapping_root_node.find_field_mapping_type(timestamp_field_path)
    else {
        bail!("could not find timestamp field `{timestamp_field_path}` in field mappings");
    };
    if let FieldMappingType::DateTime(date_time_option, cardinality) = &timestamp_field_type {
        if cardinality != &Cardinality::SingleValued {
            bail!("timestamp field `{timestamp_field_path}` should be single-valued");
        }
        if !date_time_option.fast {
            bail!("timestamp field `{timestamp_field_path}` should be a fast field");
        }
    } else {
        bail!("timestamp field `{timestamp_field_path}` should be a datetime field");
    }
    Ok(())
}

View on GitHub (pinned to a39730c5cd)

Solutions

  1. Strip the trailing `.` from `timestamp_field` in the index config.
  2. Fix the path-joining code/config template so it does not append a separator after the final segment.
  3. Validate the index config before applying it.

Example fix

// before
doc_mapping:
  timestamp_field: "event."
// after
doc_mapping:
  timestamp_field: "event.time"
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const ts = config.doc_mapping.timestamp_field;
if (typeof ts === 'string' && ts.endsWith('.')) {
  throw new Error(`timestamp_field "${ts}" must not end with a dot`);
}

Type guard

fn is_valid_trailing_path(p: &str) -> bool { !p.ends_with('.') }

Try / catch

match DocMapperBuilder::try_from(config) {
    Ok(dm) => Ok(dm),
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("should not end with") => Err(ConfigError::InvalidTimestampField(e.to_string())),
    Err(e) => Err(e.into()),
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `DocMapperBuilder::try_from` with `doc_mapping.timestamp_field` ending in `.` (e.g. `"timestamp."`), typically from concatenating path segments incorrectly.

Common situations: Programmatic config generation joining keys with `.` and leaving a trailing separator; copy-paste artifacts in index config YAML; template rendering issues in config tooling.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of quickwit-oss/quickwit@a39730c5cd (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/86bde8e21399bf79. Report an issue: GitHub.