vitest-dev/vitest · error · RangeLocationFilterProvidedError

VITEST_RANGE_LOCATION_FILTER_PROVIDED

VITEST_RANGE_LOCATION_FILTER_PROVIDED

Error message

Found "-" in location filter ${filter}.  Note that range location filters are not supported.  Consider specifying the exact line numbers of your tests.

What it means

`parseFilter` accepts a `filename:line` form but rejects `filename:start-end` ranges — range location filters are not supported. When the segment after the last colon matches `^\d+-\d+$`, it throws a `RangeLocationFilterProvidedError` (code `VITEST_RANGE_LOCATION_FILTER_PROVIDED`). The user is asked to specify exact line numbers instead.

Solutions

Pass a single exact line: `vitest src/foo.test.ts:10` (the test that starts on line 10).
Run the file without a line filter to execute the whole suite: `vitest src/foo.test.ts`.
If you need to run several tests, pass multiple `:line` filters as separate argv entries.

Example fix

# before
vitest src/foo.test.ts:10-20

# after
vitest src/foo.test.ts:10

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function normalizeLocationFilter(filter: string): string {
  // strip a `start-end` range down to its start line
  return filter.replace(/:(\d+)-\d+$/, ':$1')
}

const safe = normalizeLocationFilter(userFilter)

Prevention

Pass a single `:line` to target a specific test by its declaration line.
If an editor hands you a range, take the first number before the dash.
Drop the line filter to run the whole file when unsure.

When it happens

Trigger: Passing `vitest src/foo.test.ts:10-20`, `vitest foo.test.ts:5-5`, or any location filter whose numeric part contains a hyphen. The same path through `parseFilter` is used by CLI argv and editor integrations.

Common situations: Copy-pasting a range from an IDE selection; assuming Vitest mirrors Jest's `:line` filter but extends it to ranges; a VS Code extension passing the selected line range.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of vitest-dev/vitest@1fa9837ec2 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b10dfa90b62efe71. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/vitest/src/node/cli/filter.ts:22

export function parseFilter(filter: string): FileFilter {
  const colonIndex = filter.lastIndexOf(':')
  if (colonIndex === -1) {
    return { filename: filter }
  }

  const [parsedFilename, lineNumber] = [
    filter.substring(0, colonIndex),
    filter.substring(colonIndex + 1),
  ]

  if (/^\d+$/.test(lineNumber)) {
    return {
      filename: parsedFilename,
      lineNumber: Number.parseInt(lineNumber),
    }
  }
  else if (/^\d+-\d+$/.test(lineNumber)) {
    throw new RangeLocationFilterProvidedError(filter)
  }
  else {
    return { filename: filter }
  }
}

export interface FileFilter {
  filename: string
  lineNumber?: undefined | number
}

export function groupFilters(filters: FileFilter[]): Record<string, number[]> {
  const groupedFilters_ = groupBy(filters, f => f.filename)
  const groupedFilters = Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(groupedFilters_)
    .map((entry) => {
      const [filename, filters] = entry
      const testLocations = filters.map(f => f.lineNumber)

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