stamparm/maltrail · error · SystemExit

[!] version %r has non-numeric components

Error message

[!] version %r has non-numeric components

What it means

series() converts the first two dot-separated components of a version to integers. If either component is non-numeric (e.g. '3.x', 'latest', or letters in the major/minor slot), int() raises ValueError and the tool exits with this message. Pre-release/build suffixes after '-' or '+' are already stripped, so this only fires for genuinely non-numeric major/minor parts.

Solutions

1. Correct the version in the offending source (CITATION.cff, Cargo.toml/lock, settings mirror) to numeric major.minor[.patch]
2. Use pre-release suffixes instead of letters in components: '3.0.0-rc1' rather than '3.rc1'
3. Grep the version sources for non-numeric components before running the checker
4. Re-run check_version.py to verify the fix

Example fix

// before (CITATION.cff)
version: "3.rc1"
// after
version: "3.0.0-rc1"

import re
def is_numeric_version(v):
    v = re.split(r'[-+]', v, 1)[0]
    parts = v.split('.')
    return len(parts) >= 2 and all(p.isdigit() for p in parts[:2])

When it happens

Trigger: A version string whose major or minor component is not an integer after stripping any [-+] suffix — e.g. 'three.0', '3.x', '3.0.dev' is fine (suffix) but '3.dev.0' is not — when passed via --tag or read from a version file.

Common situations: Placeholder or template text left in a version file ('latest', 'X.Y'); a typo like '3,O' in Cargo.toml or CITATION.cff; semver2 variants with letters in the numeric positions.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

Related errors

• [!] version %r is not 'major.minor[.patch]'
• [x] invalid IP address
• not a Maltrail provenance sidecar (bad magic)
• provenance sidecar is truncated
• packet too short for header-protection sample

AI-assisted analysis of stamparm/maltrail@77cfb06d76 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e2d7026c70d74e1d. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sensor/tools/check_version.py:117

        raise SystemExit("[!] no maltrail-sensor package entry found in %s" % CARGO_LOCK)
    return match.group(1)


def series(version):
    """'3.0.1' and '3.0' both reduce to (3, 0) - Maltrail versions two components, Cargo three.

    A SemVer pre-release / build suffix is stripped first, so 'v3.0-rc1' and '3.0.0+deb' are the
    3.0 series like anything else. Release candidates are the whole point of having a release
    pipeline that can be rehearsed, and refusing to name one would have made that impossible.
    """
    version = re.split(r"[-+]", version, 1)[0]
    parts = version.split('.')
    if len(parts) < 2:
        raise SystemExit("[!] version %r is not 'major.minor[.patch]'" % version)
    try:
        return (int(parts[0]), int(parts[1]))
    except ValueError:
        raise SystemExit("[!] version %r has non-numeric components" % version)


def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="check that the sensor, the server and CITATION.cff agree on the version")
    parser.add_argument("--tag", help="also require both to match this release tag (e.g. '3.0' or 'v3.0')")
    args = parser.parse_args()

    settings, cargo, citation = settings_version(), cargo_version(), citation_version()
    generated, locked = settings_gen_version(), cargo_lock_version()
    print("[i] core/settings.py VERSION   = %s" % settings)
    print("[i] sensor/Cargo.toml version  = %s" % cargo)
    print("[i] CITATION.cff version       = %s" % citation)
    print("[i] settings_gen.rs VERSION    = %s" % generated)
    print("[i] Cargo.lock version         = %s" % locked)

    if series(settings) != series(cargo):
        print("[x] the server and the sensor would report different versions", file=sys.stderr)
        print("[?] make sensor/Cargo.toml '%s.0' or core/settings.py '%d.%d'"

View on GitHub (pinned to 77cfb06d76)