vitessio/vitess · error

TopoCat: invalid wildcards: %v

Error message

TopoCat: invalid wildcards: %v

What it means

commandTopoCat resolves cell-qualified wildcard paths (e.g. 'zone1/*/keyspace') against the topo server before printing topo contents. This error wraps any failure from ResolveWildcards, most commonly a malformed path or an unreachable topo server/cell, prefixed with 'TopoCat: invalid wildcards:' so the user knows which argument was bad.

Source

Thrown at go/vt/vtctl/topo.go:65

		name:   "TopoCp",
		method: commandTopoCp,
		params: "[--cell <cell>] [--to_topo] <src> <dst>",
		help:   "Copies a file from topo to local file structure, or the other way around",
	})
}

func commandTopoCat(ctx context.Context, wr *wrangler.Wrangler, subFlags *pflag.FlagSet, args []string) error {
	cell := subFlags.String("cell", topo.GlobalCell, "topology cell to cat the file from. Defaults to global cell.")
	long := subFlags.Bool("long", false, "long listing.")
	decodeProtoJSON := subFlags.Bool("decode_proto_json", false, "decode proto files and display them as json")
	decodeProto := subFlags.Bool("decode_proto", false, "decode proto files and display them as text")
	subFlags.Parse(args)
	if subFlags.NArg() == 0 {
		return errors.New("TopoCat: no path specified")
	}
	resolved, err := wr.TopoServer().ResolveWildcards(ctx, *cell, subFlags.Args())
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("TopoCat: invalid wildcards: %v", err)
	}
	if len(resolved) == 0 {
		// The wildcards didn't result in anything, we're done.
		return nil
	}

	conn, err := wr.TopoServer().ConnForCell(ctx, *cell)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	var topologyDecoder TopologyDecoder
	switch {
	case *decodeProtoJSON:
		topologyDecoder = JSONTopologyDecoder{}
	case *decodeProto:
		topologyDecoder = ProtoTopologyDecoder{}
	default:

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a25a7d17)

Solutions

1. Check the path syntax printed by `vtctl topo --help` and fix the wildcard pattern (valid form is typically [cell/]<keyspace>/<shard>[/<file>] with * wildcards).
2. Verify the --cell value exists: run `vtctl GetCellInfo <cell>` or list cells via `vtctl topo -z cat /vitess/global/cells`.
3. Confirm topo server connectivity flags (--topo_implementation, --topo_global_server_address, --topo_global_root) match your deployment.
4. Run a non-wildcard path first (e.g. `vtctl topo cat <cell>/<keyspace>`) to isolate whether resolution or the backend is failing.

Example fix

// before
vtctl topo cat -cell zonne1/*/shard-0  # typo'd cell
// after
vtctl topo cat -cell zone1/*/shard-0

if !strings.Contains(path, "*") { if err := wr.TopoServer().Get(ctx, path); err != nil { return err } }
cellInfo, err := wr.TopoServer().GetCellInfo(ctx, cell)
if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("cell %s does not exist: %v", cell, err) }

if err := cmdRun(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "TopoCat: invalid wildcards") {
        log.Warn("check topo path/cell and topo server connectivity", slog.Any("error", err))
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `vtctl topo -cell <cell> cat <path>` where the path contains wildcards that fail resolution: a path glob that the topo server rejects, a nonexistent cell name, or the topo server being down/unreachable so ResolveWildcards returns an error.

Common situations: Typo'd cell in --cell; wildcard characters used with a path format the resolver doesn't expect (e.g. missing keyspace/shard component); topology backend (etcd/zk/consul) down or misconfigured via --topo_implementation and --topo_global_server_address.

Related errors

• mysql cluster type not yet supported
• no shards in keyspace %v
• not allowed: deny-all security-policy enforced
• not allowed: read-only security-policy enforced
• invalid choice for enum

AI-assisted analysis of vitessio/vitess@01a25a7d17 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c839832dfb3b7881. Report an issue: GitHub.