sqlmapproject/sqlmap · error · SqlmapSyntaxException

something went wrong during command line parsing ('%s')

Error message

something went wrong during command line parsing ('%s')

What it means

Error "something went wrong during command line parsing ('%s')" thrown in sqlmapproject/sqlmap.

Source

Thrown at lib/parse/cmdline.py:1094

                    clearHistory()
                    dataToStdout("[i] history cleared\n")
                    saveHistory(AUTOCOMPLETE_TYPE.SQLMAP)
                elif command.lower() in ("x", "q", "exit", "quit"):
                    raise SqlmapShellQuitException
                elif command[0] != '-':
                    if not re.search(r"(?i)\A(\?|help)\Z", command):
                        dataToStdout("[!] invalid option(s) provided\n")
                    dataToStdout("[i] valid example: '-u http://www.site.com/vuln.php?id=1 --banner'\n")
                else:
                    saveHistory(AUTOCOMPLETE_TYPE.SQLMAP)
                    loadHistory(AUTOCOMPLETE_TYPE.SQLMAP)
                    break

            try:
                for arg in shlex.split(command):
                    argv.append(getUnicode(arg, encoding=sys.stdin.encoding))
            except ValueError as ex:
                raise SqlmapSyntaxException("something went wrong during command line parsing ('%s')" % getSafeExString(ex))

        longOptions = set(re.findall(r"\-\-([^= ]+?)=", parser.format_help()))
        longSwitches = set(re.findall(r"\-\-([^= ]+?)\s", parser.format_help()))

        for i in xrange(len(argv)):
            # Reference: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-
            argv[i] = re.sub(u"\\A(\u2010|\u2013|\u2212|\u2014|\u4e00|\u1680|\uFE63|\uFF0D)+", lambda match: '-' * len(match.group(0)), argv[i])

            # Reference: https://unicode-table.com/en/sets/quotation-marks/
            argv[i] = argv[i].strip(u"\u00AB\u2039\u00BB\u203A\u201E\u201C\u201F\u201D\u2019\u275D\u275E\u276E\u276F\u2E42\u301D\u301E\u301F\uFF02\u201A\u2018\u201B\u275B\u275C")

            if argv[i] == "-hh":
                argv[i] = "-h"
            elif i == 1 and re.search(r"\A(http|www\.|\w[\w.-]+\.\w{2,})", argv[i]) is not None:
                argv[i] = "--url=%s" % argv[i]
            elif len(argv[i]) > 1 and all(ord(_) in xrange(0x2018, 0x2020) for _ in ((argv[i].split('=', 1)[-1].strip() or ' ')[0], argv[i][-1])):
                dataToStdout("[!] copy-pasting illegal (non-console) quote characters from Internet is illegal (%s)\n" % argv[i])
                raise SystemExit

View on GitHub (pinned to 0a35b20e39)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at lib/parse/cmdline.py:1094 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of sqlmapproject/sqlmap@0a35b20e39 (2026-08-26). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9b9f9fae51ac889d. Report an issue: GitHub.