theonedev/onedev · error · TooGeneralQueryException

File query is too general: ${term}

Error message

File query is too general: ${term}

What it means

FileQueryOption.applyConstraints builds a Lucene wildcard query over blob names for code file searches. If the term consists only of wildcard/separator characters ('?', '*', ',', '.') with no real literal characters, matching would scan everything, so TooGeneralQueryException is thrown to protect the index from a degenerate query.

Source

Thrown at server-core/src/main/java/io/onedev/server/search/code/query/FileQueryOption.java:58

		return term;
	}

	public boolean isCaseSensitive() {
		return caseSensitive;
	}

	public void applyConstraints(BooleanQuery.Builder builder) {
		Preconditions.checkNotNull(term);
		
		boolean tooGeneral = true;
		for (char ch: term.toCharArray()) {
			if (ch != '?' && ch != '*' && ch != ',' && ch != '.') {
				tooGeneral = false;
				break;
			}
		}
		if (tooGeneral)
			throw new TooGeneralQueryException("File query is too general: " + term);

		builder.add(new WildcardQuery(new Term(BLOB_NAME.name(), term.toLowerCase())), BooleanClause.Occur.MUST);
	}

	@Nullable
	public Optional<LinearRange> matches(String blobName, @Nullable String excludeFileName) {
		Preconditions.checkNotNull(term);
		
		var normalizedTerm = term;
		var normalizedBlobName = blobName;
		var normalizedExcludeFileName = excludeFileName;
		if (!caseSensitive) {
			normalizedBlobName = normalizedBlobName.toLowerCase();
			normalizedTerm = normalizedTerm.toLowerCase();
			if (normalizedExcludeFileName != null)
				normalizedExcludeFileName = normalizedExcludeFileName.toLowerCase();
		}
		if (WildcardUtils.matchString(normalizedTerm, normalizedBlobName)

View on GitHub (pinned to d44925c47c)

Solutions

1. Include at least one literal character (letter or digit) in the search term, e.g. '*.java' instead of '*.*'.
2. Validate the term client-side before submitting: reject terms matching ^[?*,.]+$ .
3. Catch TooGeneralQueryException in the search entry point and show a 'query too general' message.

Example fix

// before
new FileQuery().withOption(new FileQueryOption("*.*", false));
// after
new FileQuery().withOption(new FileQueryOption("*.java", false));

if (term == null || term.matches("[?*,.]+"))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("File search term needs at least one literal character");

boolean isUsableFileTerm(String term) {
    return term != null && term.chars().anyMatch(c -> "?*,.".indexOf(c) < 0);
}

try {
    query = new FileQuery().withOption(new FileQueryOption(term, caseSensitive));
} catch (TooGeneralQueryException e) {
    return Result.error("File query too general: " + term);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Creating a FileQueryOption with a term like '*', '??', '*.*' (only wildcards and dots/commas, no letters/digits) and applying it during a code file search, either programmatically or via the code search UI.

Common situations: User types '*' or '*.*' into the file-name code search box; a saved search contains only wildcards; programmatic search built from user input without pre-validation.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid query parameter" / "Failed to parse value of ...": fixing bad query string parameters across APIs — this error's family across 36 libraries.

Related errors

• Symbol query is too general: ${term}
• Text query is too general: ${term}
• Regex query is too general: ${regex}
• Title is required
• Count should not be greater than ${RestConstants.MAX_PAGE_SI

AI-assisted analysis of theonedev/onedev@d44925c47c (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ac2c82806be2153c. Report an issue: GitHub.