redis/redis-py · error · ValueError

must not contain spaces, newlines, non-printable…

Error message

{field_name} must not contain spaces, newlines, non-printable characters, or braces

What it means

_validate_no_invalid_chars (redis/driver_info.py:21) rejects any character outside printable ASCII 0x21-0x7E and also forbids the brace set ()[]{}. These strings become the LIB-NAME / LIB-VER sent via CLIENT SETINFO and appear in CLIENT LIST / CLIENT INFO output, where spaces, newlines and braces would corrupt Redis' single-line format or enable injection. The validator runs on the base lib name, the lib version, each upstream driver name, and each upstream driver version.

Solutions

1. Sanitize the value to printable ASCII without spaces or braces before constructing DriverInfo or calling add_upstream_driver.
2. Strip whitespace/newlines and replace unicode dashes/quotes with their ASCII equivalents.
3. Keep driver/version strings to the form /^[!-~]+$/ minus ()[]{} — typically alnum, dots, hyphens, underscores.

Example fix

// before
info = redis.driver_info.DriverInfo(name='My Redis Client 2.0')
// after
info = redis.driver_info.DriverInfo(name='MyRedisClient-2.0')

import re
def safe_driver_value(v: str) -> str:
    return re.sub(r'\s+', '', v).encode('ascii', 'ignore').decode('ascii')
def is_valid_value(v: str) -> bool:
    return all(0x21 <= ord(c) <= 0x7E and c not in '()[]{}' for c in v)

def is_clean_ascii(v) -> bool:
    return isinstance(v, str) and all(0x21 <= ord(c) <= 0x7E and c not in '()[]{}' for c in v)

When it happens

Trigger: Calling DriverInfo(name=..., lib_version=...) or driver_info.add_upstream_driver(name, version) with a value containing a space, tab, newline, non-ASCII char (e.g. a unicode dash), or any of ()[]{}. Passing a version with a trailing newline or a driver name copied from a rich-text doc with smart quotes will trigger it.

Common situations: Auto-derived versions that include git describe suffixes with special chars; pasting driver names from marketing copy; unicode lookalikes (en-dash instead of hyphen); building lib_name from user input that contains spaces.

Related errors

• driver_info must be a DriverInfo instance or None
• Driver name must not be None
• Driver version must not be None
• Upstream driver name must use a Python package-style name…
• ACL LOG count must be an integer

AI-assisted analysis of redis/redis-py@6a6b581b48 (2026-08-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5b69f275f555f9f4. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at redis/driver_info.py:21

from dataclasses import dataclass, field
from typing import List, Optional

from redis.utils import SENTINEL

_BRACES = {"(", ")", "[", "]", "{", "}"}


def _validate_no_invalid_chars(value: str, field_name: str) -> None:
    """Ensure value contains only printable ASCII without spaces or braces.

    This mirrors the constraints enforced by other Redis clients for values that
    will appear in CLIENT LIST / CLIENT INFO output.
    """

    for ch in value:
        # printable ASCII without space: '!' (0x21) to '~' (0x7E)
        if ord(ch) < 0x21 or ord(ch) > 0x7E or ch in _BRACES:
            raise ValueError(
                f"{field_name} must not contain spaces, newlines, non-printable characters, or braces"
            )


def _validate_driver_name(name: str) -> None:
    """Validate an upstream driver name.

    The name should look like a typical Python distribution or package name,
    following a simplified form of PEP 503 normalisation rules:

    * start with a lowercase ASCII letter
    * contain only lowercase letters, digits, hyphens and underscores

    Examples of valid names: ``"django-redis"``, ``"celery"``, ``"rq"``.
    """

    import re

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