redis/redis · critical

Reading the configuration file, at line %d\n

Error message

Reading the configuration file, at line %d\n

What it means

Second line of Sentinel's fatal config report (sentinel.c:1853): prints the line number (`linenum`) of the offending directive. Use it to jump straight to the bad line in sentinel.conf; the next two lines give the line text and the specific error.

Source

Thrown at src/sentinel.c:1853

        while((ln = listNext(&li))) {
            struct sentinelLoadQueueEntry *entry = ln->value;
            err = sentinelHandleConfiguration(entry->argv,entry->argc);
            if (err) {
                linenum = entry->linenum;
                line = entry->line;
                goto loaderr;
            }
        }
    }

    /* free sentinel_config when config loading is finished */
    freeSentinelConfig();
    return;

loaderr:
    fprintf(stderr, "\n*** FATAL CONFIG FILE ERROR (Redis %s) ***\n",
        REDIS_VERSION);
    fprintf(stderr, "Reading the configuration file, at line %d\n", linenum);
    fprintf(stderr, ">>> '%s'\n", line);
    fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", err);
    exit(1);
}

const char *sentinelHandleConfiguration(char **argv, int argc) {

    sentinelRedisInstance *ri;

    if (!strcasecmp(argv[0],"monitor") && argc == 5) {
        /* monitor <name> <host> <port> <quorum> */
        int quorum = atoi(argv[4]);

        if (quorum <= 0) return "Quorum must be 1 or greater.";
        if (createSentinelRedisInstance(argv[1],SRI_MASTER,argv[2],
                                        atoi(argv[3]),quorum,NULL) == NULL)
        {
            return sentinelCheckCreateInstanceErrors(SRI_MASTER);

View on GitHub (pinned to 4f20cb4893)

Solutions

  1. Open sentinel.conf at the printed line number.
  2. Cross-check the directive syntax against the Sentinel documentation.
  3. Fix and restart Sentinel to confirm the error clears.
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# Surface the offending line number before the fatal start
sed -n "${LINE_NUM}p" /etc/redis/sentinel.conf

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Always printed as part of the config-load fatal banner when `sentinelHandleConfiguration` returns an error.

Common situations: Hand-edited or version-mismatched sentinel.conf with a bad directive at the reported line.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of redis/redis@4f20cb4893 (2026-08-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ceb32e86dc351b64. Report an issue: GitHub.