metaflow Batch job fail when user name has spaces

Apple lets user names have spaces but when a user with spaces tries to run a batch job with Metaflow aws does not let job names have spaces. The following error is what a user would see.

An error occurred (ClientException) when calling the SubmitJob operation: Error executing request, Exception : Job name should match valid pattern, RequestId: 1db9be95-2aba-4ff0-b19d-a61435a95791

Jan 14 '20 21:01 Dudemullet

Thanks for the bug report. I will take a look at the PR.

Jan 27 '20 18:01 savingoyal

Quick Fix: You can fix it by changing this function in the file at "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/metaflow/plugins/aws/batch". As AWS Batch doesn't allow spaces or dots in their job names I replaced them with a space: user=user.replace(" ", "").replace(".", "")

def _job_name(self, user, flow_name, run_id, step_name, task_id, retry_count):
        return '{user}-{flow_name}-{run_id}-{step_name}-{task_id}-{retry_count}'.format(
            user=user.replace(" ", "").replace(".", ""),
            flow_name=flow_name,
            run_id=run_id,
            step_name=step_name,
            task_id=task_id,
            retry_count=retry_count,
        )

Mar 24 '20 08:03 rmeinlsainsburys

@rmeinlsainsburys We actually have a PR #101 that will notify of the errors more precisely. Also, I believe the preferred method would be to set your USER environment variable.

You don't have to update your username at the system level (might be restricted)
don't have to update source code

Mar 24 '20 15:03 Dudemullet

One more data point - https://twitter.com/johancarlin/status/1412700513842470913?s=20

Jul 07 '21 19:07 savingoyal

Curious, why is the above fix not yet implemented?

Jul 26 '23 16:07 csetzkorn

Setting the METAFLOW_USER environment variable fixed it for me.

Oct 30 '25 05:10 mmarqz