siyuan-note/siyuan · error

--pattern is required

Error message

--pattern is required

What it means

Thrown by the `file grep` subcommand when the `--pattern` flag is empty. The pattern is the regular expression passed to `gulu.File.Grep`; an empty pattern would match everything and is treated as a usage error. The check runs before the search path is resolved.

Source

Thrown at kernel/cli/cmd/file.go:279

		return err
	}
	defer srcF.Close()
	dstF, err := os.Create(dst)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	defer dstF.Close()
	_, err = io.Copy(dstF, srcF)
	return err
}

var fileGrepCmd = &cobra.Command{
	Use:   "grep --pattern <regex> --path <path>",
	Short: "Search file contents with regex",
	RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
		pattern, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("pattern")
		if pattern == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("--pattern is required")
		}
		relPath, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("path")
		if relPath == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("--path is required")
		}
		abs, err := absPath(relPath)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		include, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("include")
		ctx, _ := cmd.Flags().GetInt("context")
		max, _ := cmd.Flags().GetInt("limit")
		if max <= 0 {
			max = 200
		}
		results, err := gulu.File.Grep(abs, include, pattern, ctx, max)
		if err != nil {
			return err

View on GitHub (pinned to 251596fc0d)

Solutions

1. Supply a regex: `siyuan file grep --pattern "TODO" --path data/`
2. Check `siyuan file grep --help` for the full flag set including `--include` and `--context`

Example fix

// before
siyuan file grep --path data/
// after
siyuan file grep --pattern "TODO|FIXME" --path data/ --include *.md

if pattern == "" {
    return errors.New("a non-empty regex pattern is required")
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `siyuan file grep --path data/` with no `--pattern`, or with `--pattern ""`. The RunE reads the flag and returns the error before touching the filesystem.

Common situations: Forgetting the regex argument when adapting a grep habit from shell; passing a variable that evaluated to empty; misreading the flag order.

Related errors

• --path is required
• --path is required
• --file is required
• --notebook is required
• --id is required

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@251596fc0d (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ef6d2a917e44b51e. Report an issue: GitHub.