An Error Map is a mapping of error to their attributes and properties. It is used by connected clients to handle error codes which they may otherwise not be aware of.
The error map solves the problem where clients would incorrectly handle newer error codes, and/or where the server would disconnect the client because it needed to send it a new error code.
The solution via Error Map is to establish a contract between client and server about certain attributes which each error code may have. These attributes indicate whether an error may be passed through, whether the command is retriable and so on. When a client receives an error code it does not know about it, it can look up its attributes and then determine the next course of action.
The error map is a JSON formatted file containing a mapping of error codes to their extended information. The top-level format of the file is:
{
"version": 1,
"revision": 1
"errors": {
"1f": {
"name": "AUTH_STALE",
"desc": "Reauthentication Required",
"attrs": ["conn-state-invalidated"]
},
"20": {
"name": "AUTH_ERROR",
"desc": "Authentication failed",
"attrs": ["conn-state-invalidated", "auth"]
}
}
}
version
is the current error map format. The error map is versioned in case the file format changes in the future, so that clients can request a version they can understand. There is currently two versions, 1 and 2. The difference between version one and two is that two allows for new attributes specified in theattrs
section for an error code. Clients MUST ignore unknown attributes.revision
is the revision of the error map. The revision is incremented whenever a new error code is added. Clients can use this to compare error maps from different servers and select the map with the highest revision as the one to use.errors
is the actual mapping of error codes to their attributes. This is a JSON object. Each key represents the error code in hexadecimal format. Each value contains the following fields:name
: The short name of the error code, e.g.KEY_ENOENT
. The client may use this in logs.desc
: An expanded description of the error code. e.g.Key not found
. The client may use this as part of an error message or string.attrs
: One or more attributes of the error. The client will scan the attributes and determine the course of action.
Attributes are the most important part of the error map as they convey how an error code should be handled. An error code may have more than a single attribute. As of version 2 clients must ignore unknown attributes and only deal with the attributes they understand.
-
item-deleted
: This attribute means that the error is related to operating on a soft-deleted document. -
item-locked
: This attribute means that the error is related to operating on a locked document. -
item-only
: This attribute means that the error is related to a constraint failure regarding the item itself, i.e. the item does not exist, already exists, or its current value makes the current operation impossible. Retrying the operation when the item's value or status has changed may succeed. -
invalid-input
: This attribute means that a user's input was invalid because it violates the semantics of the operation, or exceeds some predefined limit. -
fetch-config
: The client's cluster map may be outdated and requires updating. The client should obtain a newer configuration. -
conn-state-invalidated
: The current connection is no longer valid. The client must reconnect to the server. Note that the presence of other attributes may indicate an alternate remedy to fixing the connection without a disconnect, but without special remedial action a disconnect is needed. -
auth
: The operation failed because the client failed to authenticate or is not authorized to perform this operation. Note that this error in itself does not mean the connection is invalid, unlessconn-state-invalidated
is also present. -
special-handling
: This error code must be handled specially. If it is not handled, the connection must be dropped. -
support
: The operation is not supported, possibly because the of server version, bucket type, or current user. -
temp
: This error is transient. Note that this does not mean the error is retriable. -
internal
: This is an internal error in the server. -
retry-now
: The operation may be retried immediately. -
retry-later
: The operation may be retried after some time. -
no-retry
: The client should not retry the operation. -
subdoc
: The error is related to the subdocument subsystem. -
dcp
: The error is related to the DCP subsystem. -
rate-limit
: The error is related to rate limitation for the client (version 2) -
system-constraint
: The error is related to a system-defined hard limit for resource usage. Retrying the operation will most likely not succeed unless an action was taken on the server to resolve the issue (version 2) -
success
: The operation was successful for those situations where the error code is indicating successful (i.e. subdocument operations carried out on a deleted document)
A client which is able to make use of the Error Map is able to handle error codes
that it does not explicitly understand. This also allows the server to provide
more information (in the form of the desc
and name
of the error) for a given
failure.
To make full use of the error map facility, and to ensure backwards compatibility
with older versions of the server (which do not support the GET_ERROR_MAP
command)
and/or older versions of the client (which are not equipped to handle unknown error
codes), the following protocol should be employed:
- In the initial negotiation in the
HELLO
command, the client should indicate that it supports theXERROR
(mcbp::Feature::XERROR
, 0x07) feature. TheXERROR
feature tells the server that it may send error codes beyond the "basic" scope of legacy Memcached/Couchbase clients, which are the classic Memcached error codes, andNOT_MY_VBUCKET
. - If the server responds that it also supports the
XERROR
feature, the client should request the error map using theGET_ERROR_MAP
command. The command takes a 16-bit integer indicating the maximum error map version the client supports (though at the time of writing, only a single version is defined). - The server may respond with an error map version equal to, or lower than the version the client requested (the lowest version is 1). The version is increased whenever a new attribute is added, or when the format of the error map changes.
- The client should compare its current global error map with the one received from the server. It should compare the revision of both error maps, and use the error map with the highest revision. The revision is increased whenever a new error is added, or when a specific code's attributes have been changed. Note that an error map with a higher revision but a lower version is better than an error map with a higher version but a lower revision.
- When a client receives an error it does not understand, it should consult its current
error map and determine the course of action. Errors with an attribute of
item-only
may be passed to the user, for example. Errors withconn-state-invalidated
should close the current connection and retry the command (if theretry
attribute is present) and so on.