wrong line reported in 'did not find expected key while parsing a block mapping'

[djellemah]

trafficstars

When parsing this yaml

key_one:
  inner:
  - value1
  - value2

key_two:
    inner:
  - value1
  - value2

the error message

Psych::SyntaxError: (/tmp/oops.yaml): did not find expected key while parsing a block mapping at line 1 column 1

contains the wrong line number. It should be reporting line 7 column 5.

[anicholson]

+1, got bitten by this issue today. Very annoying when the syntax error occured nearly 1500 lines into the file!

[anicholson]

I guess it's winding back to the start of the structure it's trying to parse, rather than flagging the error then and there...

[happycollision]

Super glad I found this issue. Probably saved my an hour of hair pulling. In my case, it seems to be reporting the correct column number, but still reports line 1 incorrectly.

[illepic]

To anyone stumbling through the internet that finds this issue for related reasons: Somewhere in your YAML you have extra spaces (or not enough spaces) before a key value. Thank you all for helping me solve this on a completely different project!

Edit on December 10, 2019: A great YAML linter may help here: https://jsonformatter.org/yaml-formatter.

[DaveCollinsJr]

+1 on the empty space in the yml file. Copy/paste error.

[felipecrv]

@illepic Thank you so much! I was missing an extra space.

[rohstar]

thanks @illepic!

[cleverington]

Thanks @illepic!

[Gimcrack]

Found my syntax error. Thanks! @illepic

[BatuhanW]

For anyone who is looking for this stupid error, I fix error by removing " ' " character.

[sanguis]

so it was a bad copy for me.

In vim I did a search of ^\(\s\s\)\+ to find all instances of good spacing and was able to find my bug

[dangan249]

+1

[aurawindsurfing]

209:11 should have beed 209:09 ... cheers for pointing that out!

[ryanooi]

Please check spacing. i got the same error because additional spacing.

[pooja-mane]

Hi I also got this error as "did not find expected key while parsing a block mapping at line 3 column 5" My code is as follow create_list: "Create a List" message: "Save Profiles" but when I place a message key in another key it works fine. plz tell me if any one knows solution... I have checked spacing also, as there is no extra spacing in line. Thank you...

[elcortez]

@pooja-mane Can you try something:

• delete the lines where the problem seems to happens
• check that you can launch your server after deleting (if so, you have spotted where are the 'wrong' lines)
• rewrite them by hand
• be careful with "'" and '"' : use " mostly if possible
• I had this issue after bulk changing all my " to '; and then there was a "If you didn"t request" so you see my mistake was very small indeed ^^

[pooja-mane]

@elcortez thank you. I got my mistake in code. create_list: "Create a List" message: "Save Profiles" as I was using massage key as create_list.message which is wrong. as when it searches for for create_list it got a label "Create a List" it wont go to search for message key. I changed my code as create_list: message: "Save Profiles"

[einverne]

Save me a lot of time. And here is a yamllint tool. http://www.yamllint.com/

[joney000]

+1

[mahemoff]

Here's command-line yamllint. It gives the correct line number.

https://github.com/adrienverge/yamllint

[ORESoftware]

(WHITESPACE AS SYNTAX IS THE DUMBEST THING EVER), thank you

[felipecrv]

@ORESoftware that's the whole point of using YAML. Use JSON instead.

[andydempster]

Here's command-line yamllint. It gives the correct line number. https://github.com/adrienverge/yamllint

Thank you @mahemoff, you just saved me a world of pain!

[vfonic]

Ended up here after missing a closing ' sign.

Let's assume paths: is at line 1.

The error message was: did not find expected key while parsing a block mapping at line 5 column 3 (Psych::SyntaxError)

While the actual error is at line 20.

 1. paths:
 2.   # customer:
 3.   #   path: /news/entertainment-arts-27221191
 4.   # before_capture: 'javascript/interact--casper.js' # (optional) JavaScript file to execute before taking the screenshot of this path.
 5.   customers_login:                '/account/login'
 6.   customers_register:             '/account/register'
 7.   404:                            '/wraith_testing'
 8.   article_konfigurator:           '/blogs/blog/alte-brillen-neu-verglasen'
 9.   article:                        '/blogs/blog/warum-werden-brillenglaeser-entspiegelt'
10.   article_lexikon:                        '/blogs/lexikon/basis' # blog lexikon article
11.   blog_lexikon:                   '/blogs/lexikon' # blog index
12.   blog_lexikon_tag:                   '/blogs/lexikon/tagged/b' # blog lexikon tag
13.   blog:                           '/blogs/blog'
14.   cart:                           '/cart'
15.   index:                          '/'
16.   page_about_us:                  '/pages/uber-topglas'
17.   page_composer_einstarkenglaser: '/pages/einstarkenglaser'
18.   page_composer_gleitsichtglaser: '/pages/gleitsichtglaeser'
19.   page_composer_koln:             '/pages/optiker-koeln'
20.   page_consulting:                '/pages/unsere-brillenglaser-im-detail # HERE'S THE ERROR
21.   page_contact:                   '/pages/kontakt'
22.   page_faq:                       '/pages/haeufige-fragen'
23.   page_functioniert:              '/pages/so-funktionierts'
24.   page_konfigurator:              '/pages/brillenglaeser-online-auswaehlen'
25.   page:                           '/pages/lieferzeiten'
26.   search:                         '/search'
27.   search:                         '/search?type=article,page&q=sehstarke'

[juanmirocks]

Do not write colons within strings as in:

- printf 'commit:'`

[goalaleo]

For me the line number was incorrect when I had unescaped double quotes inside a value...

[farfromunique]

Copy/pasting code from the internet can have WEIRD results. I had to re-write an entire file to fix this issue; my spaces and quotes were right, but there were invisible whitespace characters hidden... somewhere.

[emfluenceindia]

This vagrant error reporting must be looked into! For me reported line number was 74, while it was 84 actually. For beginners like me its a nightmare to understand what's went wrong! It was no copy/paste for me... I forgot to enable the key called plugins while I have user-switching added under it! :) Glad that I could find it out quickly.

[Freyert]

1. parsing begins
2. parser constructor
3. Handler Abstract Class
   • Handles events on the parse stream.
   • Handler#event_location : my money's on this guy.
4. Document Stream Handler
   • Does not handleHandler#event_location.
5. But it's parent TreeBuilder does.
6. Treebuilder#set_location
   • sets the location for an event.
7. TreeBuilder#set_start_location and TreeBuilder#set_end_location
   • sets the line number where an event starts and ends, but those events are based on the node passed in. What gets passed in when an error is encountered?
   • Looks like the node type is important if we remember the error message:

     did not find expected key while parsing a block mapping at line 2 column 1 (Psych::SyntaxError)

8. Is it an issue with Node::Mapping? Probably not.
   • there are no calls to instantiate at a Mapping in the TreeBuilder.
9. Is it an issue with Node::Stream? More likely . . .
   • Streams are made up of child nodes, but its difficult to tell how exactly.

[Freyert]

It seems like this is manifesting itself in a variety of ways:

1. colon within string
2. unescaped double quotes within a value
3. not closing your strings
4. In general, bad whitespace.