vllm-project/vllm · error · ValueError

Invalid numeric value '{number_str}' in: '{value}'

Error message

Invalid numeric value '{number_str}' in: '{value}'

What it means

After the format regex matches, _parse_size converts the captured numeric group with float(); failure raises this ValueError. In practice the regex ([\d.]+) already excludes most bad input, so this fires on edge cases like "." alone or "1.2.3" that match the regex but are not valid floats.

Source

Thrown at vllm/distributed/kv_transfer/kv_connector/v1/mooncake/store/worker.py:222

    unit_multipliers = {
        "gb": 1024**3,
        "mb": 1024**2,
        "kb": 1024,
        "b": 1,
    }
    match = re.match(r"^\s*([\d.]+)\s*(gb|mb|kb|b)?\s*$", cleaned)
    if not match:
        raise ValueError(f"Invalid format: '{value}'")

    number_str = match.group(1)
    unit = match.group(2) or "b"
    multiplier = unit_multipliers[unit]

    try:
        numeric_value = float(number_str)
    except ValueError as exc:
        raise ValueError(f"Invalid numeric value '{number_str}' in: '{value}'") from exc
    return int(numeric_value * multiplier)


def _align_up(value: int, alignment: int) -> int:
    return ((value + alignment - 1) // alignment) * alignment


def _estimate_disk_offload_staging_bytes(size_list: list[int]) -> int:
    data_size = sum(size_list)
    return _align_up(data_size, _DIRECT_IO_ALIGNMENT) + _DIRECT_IO_PADDING_BYTES


def _sum_batch_bytes(sizes: list[list[int]]) -> int:
    return sum(sum(size) for size in sizes)


def _get_usable_disk_offload_buffer_budget_bytes(raw_budget_bytes: int) -> int:
    return max(1, int(raw_budget_bytes * envs.VLLM_MOONCAKE_DISK_STAGING_USABLE_RATIO))

View on GitHub (pinned to c794754062)

Solutions

1. Write the number in plain decimal form: "1.5GB" or "1024MB"
2. Or use an integer byte count

Example fix

// before
{ "local_buffer_size": "1.2.3GB" }

// after
{ "local_buffer_size": "1.5GB" }

num = str(raw.get(key)).strip().lower().rstrip("gbmkb ")
try:
    float(num)
except ValueError:
    raise ValueError(f"{key} numeric part {num!r} is not a valid number")

When it happens

Trigger: Values like ".", "1.2.3", or "..." in size fields — multiple dots that slip through the character-class regex.

Common situations: Truncated copy-paste of a size string; hand-editing that leaves stray dots.

Related errors

• Unsupported type for size: {type(value)}
• Size cannot be empty.
• Invalid format: '{value}'
• numa_bind_cpus entries must not be empty.
• Mooncake Transfer Engine initialization failed.

AI-assisted analysis of vllm-project/vllm@c794754062 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ce548fbd33fdac47. Report an issue: GitHub.