What causes "[!] no [package] table found in %s" in stamparm/maltrail?

Add a [package] section to Cargo.toml with name, version, and edition fields if the crate is a real package.

stamparm/maltrail · error · SystemExit

[!] no [package] table found in

Error message

[!] no [package] table found in %s

What it means

cargo_version() in check_version.py parses Cargo.toml as text, isolating the [package] table with the regex ^\[package\]\s*$(.*?)(?=^\[|\Z) so that dependency tables like [dependencies] never contribute a version. If no [package] table header exists in the file, it raises SystemExit with this message — the manifest lacks the mandatory package section Cargo itself requires.

Solutions

Add a [package] section to Cargo.toml with name, version, and edition fields if the crate is a real package.
If Cargo.toml is a virtual workspace root, point the CARGO constant in check_version.py at a member crate's Cargo.toml that has [package].
Check git history (git log -p Cargo.toml) to find and restore a [package] section lost in a merge or edit.
Verify the [package] header is not commented out and starts the line exactly as [package].

Example fix

# before (Cargo.toml)
[workspace]
members = ["sensor"]
# after
[package]
name = "sensor"
version = "3.0.0"
edition = "2021"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import re
text = open("Cargo.toml").read()
assert re.search(r'^\[package\]\s*$', text, re.M), \
    "Cargo.toml must contain a [package] table before running check_version"

Prevention

Never delete the [package] section; for workspaces, keep per-crate manifests intact and check member manifests, not virtual workspace roots.
Run cargo verify-project or cargo metadata in CI before the version-consistency check to catch broken manifests early.
Review merges touching Cargo.toml carefully; a dropped [package] header fails both cargo and this checker.
Keep the CARGO path constant in check_version.py in sync with repo restructurings.

When it happens

Trigger: Cargo.toml does not contain a line starting with [package]: the file is empty, was truncated, is actually a different TOML file (wrong path in the CARGO constant), uses a workspace-root manifest that only holds [workspace], or the header is malformed (e.g. [ package ] with inner spaces on the same line pattern the regex doesn't match, or commented out).

Common situations: A workspace root Cargo.toml (virtual manifest) with only [workspace] is checked instead of the member crate's manifest; a bad merge dropped the [package] section; the file path constant became stale after restructuring the repo.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is required", "must be set", "missing required field": configuration validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 36 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stamparm/maltrail@77cfb06d76 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/298407830ba6c150. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sensor/tools/check_version.py:53

def _read(path):
    with open(path, "r") as f:
        return f.read()


def settings_version():
    """VERSION = "3.0" from core/settings.py, without importing it (it has side effects)."""
    match = re.search(r"^VERSION\s*=\s*[\"']([^\"']+)[\"']", _read(SETTINGS), re.M)
    if not match:
        raise SystemExit("[!] no VERSION assignment found in %s" % SETTINGS)
    return match.group(1)


def cargo_version():
    """version = "3.0.0" from the [package] table only - dependency versions must not match."""
    text = _read(CARGO)
    package = re.search(r"^\[package\]\s*$(.*?)(?=^\[|\Z)", text, re.M | re.S)
    if not package:
        raise SystemExit("[!] no [package] table found in %s" % CARGO)
    match = re.search(r"^version\s*=\s*\"([^\"]+)\"", package.group(1), re.M)
    if not match:
        raise SystemExit("[!] no version key in the [package] table of %s" % CARGO)
    return match.group(1)


def citation_version():
    """version: "3.0" from CITATION.cff.

    Nothing linked this to the tree, and it drifted: the file still claimed 3.0 while the code,
    the sensor and the published tag were all 3.1.1. That is not cosmetic - CITATION.cff exists
    so a paper can cite a specific version, and it had been quietly citing the wrong one.
    """

    match = re.search(r"^version\s*:\s*[\"']([^\"']+)[\"']", _read(CITATION), re.M)
    if not match:
        raise SystemExit("[!] no version key found in %s" % CITATION)
    return match.group(1)

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