t8y2/dbx · error · ValueError

{name} must contain positive integers

Error message

{name} must contain positive integers

What it means

env_int_list() parses a comma-separated list of integers from an environment variable and requires a non-empty list where every element is >= 1. It raises ValueError when the list is empty or any element is zero/negative.

Source

Thrown at agents/drivers/hive-go/bench/agent_compare.py:640

    return path


def env_default(name: str, fallback: str) -> str:
    return os.getenv(name, "") or fallback


def env_int(name: str, fallback: int) -> int:
    value = int(env_default(name, str(fallback)))
    if value < 1:
        raise ValueError(f"{name} must be positive")
    return value


def env_int_list(name: str, fallback: list[int]) -> list[int]:
    raw = os.getenv(name, "")
    values = fallback if not raw else [int(value.strip()) for value in raw.split(",")]
    if not values or any(value < 1 for value in values):
        raise ValueError(f"{name} must contain positive integers")
    return values


def env_float(name: str, fallback: float) -> float:
    value = float(env_default(name, str(fallback)))
    if value <= 0:
        raise ValueError(f"{name} must be positive")
    return value


def env_bool(name: str, fallback: bool) -> bool:
    raw = os.getenv(name)
    if raw is None or raw == "":
        return fallback
    normalized = raw.strip().lower()
    if normalized in {"1", "true", "yes", "on"}:
        return True
    if normalized in {"0", "false", "no", "off"}:

View on GitHub (pinned to c0390bff16)

Solutions

1. Set the variable to comma-separated positive integers, e.g. export BENCH_SIZES=100,1000,10000
2. Remove zero/negative entries from the list
3. Unset the variable to fall back to the built-in default list
4. Ensure no empty segments like "100,,200" in the value

Example fix

// before
export BENCH_SIZES=100,0,10000
// after
export BENCH_SIZES=100,1000,10000

def valid_int_list_env(name: str, default: list[int]) -> list[int]:
    raw = os.getenv(name, "")
    if not raw:
        return default
    try:
        values = [int(v.strip()) for v in raw.split(",") if v.strip()]
    except ValueError:
        raise SystemExit(f"{name} must be comma-separated integers")
    if not values or any(v < 1 for v in values):
        raise SystemExit(f"{name} entries must be positive integers")
    return values

def is_positive_int_list(values: list) -> bool:
    return bool(values) and all(isinstance(v, int) and v >= 1 for v in values)

try:
    sizes = env_int_list("BENCH_SIZES", [100, 1000])
except ValueError as e:
    print(f"invalid list: {e}; falling back to defaults")
    sizes = [100, 1000]

When it happens

Trigger: Env var parsed by env_int_list (called by main) is set to an empty string after raw was non-empty but splits to empty/whitespace, or contains a value like "0" or "-2", e.g. BENCH_SIZES="100,0"; also fires if raw is "" and the fallback list itself is empty or contains non-positive ints.

Common situations: Trailing commas or whitespace-only entries producing bad splits; someone entering 0 to disable a workload size; malformed lists like ",,".

Understand the failure class

Background: "is not a valid" / "Invalid ... value" environment variable errors: how libraries validate env vars and what to do when they reject yours — this error's family across 48 libraries.

Related errors

• BENCH_CANDIDATES selected no candidates
• {name} must be positive
• {name} must be positive
• {name} must be a boolean
• {name} must be a boolean

AI-assisted analysis of t8y2/dbx@c0390bff16 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e7e3ffb00b46801f. Report an issue: GitHub.