Deprecation message for lenient Boolean parsing #137885

mamazzol · 2025-11-11T11:23:45Z

Wrapping user-facing usages of Boolean.parseBoolean in a util method to send a deprecation log.

elasticsearchmachine · 2025-11-11T11:24:24Z

Pinging @elastic/es-core-infra (Team:Core/Infra)

elasticsearchmachine · 2025-11-11T11:24:46Z

Hi @mamazzol, I've created a changelog YAML for you. Note that since this PR is labelled >deprecation, you need to update the changelog YAML to fill out the extended information sections.

elasticsearchmachine · 2025-11-11T13:02:06Z

Hi @mamazzol, I've updated the changelog YAML for you.

mosche

Thanks @mamazzol, a couple of points below.
That's a lot less places than I feared to see 😅 And I think some of these could actually be lenient for good.

mosche · 2025-11-12T08:25:18Z

server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/Booleans.java

+ @SuppressForbidden(reason = "wrap lenient parsing of booleans for deprecation logging.")
+ public static boolean parseBoolean(String value) {
+ if ("true".equals(value) == false && "false".equals(value) == false) {
+ String key = "Boolean#parseBoolean";


As mentioned above, this isn't too actionable for customers and would just result in large amount of support cases. I think we have to mention the following parts in the deprecation warning

where exactly it happened

what the wrong value is

what the correct value looks like (true / false)

mosche · 2025-11-12T08:31:18Z

server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/Booleans.java

+ + "This is discouraged in Elasticsearch as it treats all values different than 'true' as false. "
+ + "The strict method from Booleans util class should be used instead.";


I think we need to direct this message more to customers, and more clearly advise them what to use instead. Maybe something like this

Usage of lenient booleans for [{}] [setting | header | system property] such as [{}] was deprecated. Future releases of Elasticsearch may only accept `true` or `false`.

mosche · 2025-11-12T08:32:34Z

server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/Booleans.java

+
+ @SuppressForbidden(reason = "wrap lenient parsing of booleans for deprecation logging.")
+ public static boolean parseBoolean(String value) {
+ if ("true".equals(value) == false && "false".equals(value) == false) {


Booleans.isBoolean(value) == false?

mosche · 2025-11-12T08:50:05Z

modules/lang-mustache/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/script/mustache/MustacheScriptEngine.java

- @SuppressForbidden(
- reason = "TODO Deprecate any lenient usage of Boolean#parseBoolean https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/128993"
- )
 private static boolean getDetectMissingParamsOption(Map<String, String> options) {


@jdconrad Do you know if options is exposed to users. Could we just switch to strict boolean parsing here?

mosche · 2025-11-12T08:50:19Z

modules/lang-painless/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/painless/PainlessScriptEngine.java

- )
 private static boolean parseBoolean(String value) {
- return Boolean.parseBoolean(value);
+ return Booleans.parseBoolean(value);


@jdconrad Do you know if params is exposed to users. Could we just switch to strict boolean parsing here?

mosche · 2025-11-12T08:52:24Z

modules/transport-netty4/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/netty4/NettyAllocator.java

- )
 private static boolean useG1GC() {
- return Boolean.parseBoolean(JvmInfo.jvmInfo().useG1GC());
+ return org.elasticsearch.common.util.Booleans.parseBoolean(JvmInfo.jvmInfo().useG1GC());


elasticsearch/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/monitor/jvm/JvmInfo.java

Line 84 in ffb7782

String useG1GC = "unknown";

Based on above, we probably should use Booleans.parseBooleanLenient

mosche · 2025-11-12T08:55:12Z

server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/network/NetworkUtils.java

- )
 private static boolean preferIPv6Addresses() {
- return Boolean.parseBoolean(System.getProperty("java.net.preferIPv6Addresses", "false"));
+ return Booleans.parseBoolean(System.getProperty("java.net.preferIPv6Addresses", "false"));


The JVM does lenient parsing for these, should actually be fine to match that behavior here and switch to parseBooleanLenient

mosche · 2025-11-12T09:48:08Z

server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/Booleans.java

+import org.elasticsearch.common.logging.DeprecationLogger;
+import org.elasticsearch.core.SuppressForbidden;
+
+public class Booleans {


Naming this similar to the "proper" Booleans.parseBoolean might lead to confusion (particularly for reviewers), and potentially we'd end up introducing deprecations in new places for no reason.

i can't think of a great name, though.... maybe LenientBooleans.parseAndCheckForDeprecatedUsage or something in that direction

This should also be annotated with UpdateForV10 so we remember to remove the deprecated behavior for the next major.

elasticsearchmachine · 2025-11-12T09:55:37Z

Hi @mamazzol, I've updated the changelog YAML for you. Note that since this PR is labelled >deprecation, you need to update the changelog YAML to fill out the extended information sections.

mosche · 2025-11-12T10:19:50Z

server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/SearchService.java

- )
 private static boolean getErrorTraceHeader(ThreadPool threadPool) {
- return Boolean.parseBoolean(threadPool.getThreadContext().getHeaderOrDefault("error_trace", "false"));
+ return Booleans.parseBoolean(threadPool.getThreadContext().getHeaderOrDefault("error_trace", "false"));


Having a closer look, this should already be validated by the rest controller, see in RestRequest and ThreadContext. I think we can switch to strict parsing here.

@Override public boolean paramAsBoolean(String key, boolean defaultValue) { String rawParam = param(key); // Treat empty string as true because that allows the presence of the url parameter to mean "turn this on" if (rawParam != null && rawParam.length() == 0) { return true; } else { return Booleans.parseBoolean(rawParam, defaultValue); } }

public void setErrorTraceTransportHeader(RestRequest r) { // set whether data nodes should send back stack trace based on the `error_trace` query parameter if (r.paramAsBoolean("error_trace", RestController.ERROR_TRACE_DEFAULT)) { // We only set it if error_trace is true (defaults to false) to avoid sending useless bytes putHeader("error_trace", "true"); } }

mosche · 2025-11-12T10:26:29Z

docs/changelog/137885.yaml

+pr: 137885
+summary: Deprecation message for lenient Boolean parsing
+area: Infra/Logging
+type: deprecation
+issues: []
+deprecation:
+ title: Deprecation message for lenient Boolean parsing
+ area: Infra/Logging
+ details: Please describe the details of this change for the release notes. You can
+ use asciidoc.
+ impact: Please describe the impact of this change to users


Just a sketch, depending on the final impl ...

Suggested change

pr: 137885

summary: Deprecation message for lenient Boolean parsing

area: Infra/Logging

type: deprecation

issues: []

deprecation:

title: Deprecation message for lenient Boolean parsing

area: Infra/Logging

details: Please describe the details of this change for the release notes. You can

use asciidoc.

impact: Please describe the impact of this change to users

pr: 137885

summary: Add deprecation for usage of lenient booleans for analysis boolean setting (3rd party plugins) and boolean system properties.

area: Infra/Logging

type: deprecation

issues:

- 128993

deprecation:

title: Add deprecation for usage of lenient booleans for analysis boolean setting (3rd party plugins) and boolean system properties.

area: Infra/Logging

details: Usage of lenient booleans was deprecated for analysis boolean setting in external plugins using the stable plugin API and various boolean system properties.

impact: Usage of lenient booleans other than `true` or `false` will result in deprecations logs and corresponding header warnings. Future releases of ES may only accept strict boolean values `true` or `false.

Deprecation message for lenient Boolean parsing

87310d6

elastic#128993

mamazzol requested a review from a team as a code owner November 11, 2025 11:23

mamazzol added :Core/Infra/Logging Log management and logging utilities >deprecation labels Nov 11, 2025

elasticsearchmachine added v9.3.0 Team:Core/Infra Meta label for core/infra team labels Nov 11, 2025

Update docs/changelog/137885.yaml

2a168f7

Merge branch 'main' into lax-boolean

2f574be

mamazzol added tech debt"" data-name=">tech debt" style="--label-r:6;--label-g:225;--label-b:200;--label-h:173;--label-s:94;--label-l:45;" data-view-component="true" class="IssueLabel hx_IssueLabel d-inline-block v-align-middle"> >tech debt and removed >deprecation labels Nov 11, 2025

Update docs/changelog/137885.yaml

930ed45

mamazzol added 2 commits November 11, 2025 13:17

Update 137885.yaml

d03cbc3

Update 137885.yaml

2317d9c

mosche reviewed Nov 12, 2025

View reviewed changes

mosche added >deprecation and removed tech debt"" data-name=">tech debt" style="--label-r:6;--label-g:225;--label-b:200;--label-h:173;--label-s:94;--label-l:45;" data-view-component="true" class="IssueLabel hx_IssueLabel d-inline-block v-align-middle"> >tech debt labels Nov 12, 2025

Update docs/changelog/137885.yaml

0f80711

mosche reviewed Nov 12, 2025

View reviewed changes

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Uh oh!

Deprecation message for lenient Boolean parsing #137885

Deprecation message for lenient Boolean parsing #137885

mamazzol commented Nov 11, 2025

elasticsearchmachine commented Nov 11, 2025

elasticsearchmachine commented Nov 11, 2025

elasticsearchmachine commented Nov 11, 2025

mosche left a comment

mosche Nov 12, 2025

mosche Nov 12, 2025 •

edited

Loading

mosche Nov 12, 2025

mosche Nov 12, 2025

mosche Nov 12, 2025

mosche Nov 12, 2025

mosche Nov 12, 2025

mosche Nov 12, 2025

mosche Nov 12, 2025

elasticsearchmachine commented Nov 12, 2025

mosche Nov 12, 2025

mosche Nov 12, 2025 •

edited

Loading

Labels

3 participants

		+ "This is discouraged in Elasticsearch as it treats all values different than 'true' as false. "
		+ "The strict method from Booleans util class should be used instead.";

Deprecation message for lenient Boolean parsing #137885

Are you sure you want to change the base?

Deprecation message for lenient Boolean parsing #137885

Conversation

mamazzol commented Nov 11, 2025

elasticsearchmachine commented Nov 11, 2025

elasticsearchmachine commented Nov 11, 2025

elasticsearchmachine commented Nov 11, 2025

mosche left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

mosche Nov 12, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

elasticsearchmachine commented Nov 12, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

mosche Nov 12, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Labels

3 participants

mosche Nov 12, 2025 •

edited

Loading

mosche Nov 12, 2025 •

edited

Loading