What does "too many positional options" mean when doing a mongoexport?

Question

mongoexport -h db.mysite.com -u myUser -p myPass -c myCollection

But the response I get is:

ERROR: too many positional options

What's that about?

I have a same problem > mongoexport --host Remote --port 27017 --collection Event --db mana --fields userName --query {"_class" : "blaablaEvent","rewardStatus" : "NEW"} --out out.csv — Hamedz, Jun 16 '16 at 12:30
In general it is parsing error (some extra space or something like that), once try to "type" the command again instead of copying it from somewhere. — Khatri, Sep 12 '16 at 07:26
The reason behind this might be exporting in CSV format. Try exporting in json. — Sudhir Kaushik, Sep 22 '18 at 17:47

score 42 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 08 '12 at 15:53

42

I had this same problem. In my case, I was using mongoexport with the --query option, which expects a JSON document, such as:

mongoexport ... --query {field: 'value'} ...

I needed to surround the document with quotes:

mongoexport ... --query "{field: 'value'}" ...

answered Nov 08 '12 at 15:53

Dean Langford

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Some OS's work slightly differently. The above solution worked for me on Windows, but for a colleague (Mac) he had to put the single quotes (') on the outside and double quotes (") on the inside. Win: mongoexport ... --query "{field: 'value'}" ... Mac: mongoexport ... --query '{field: "value"}' ... – Ron Tuffin Sep 10 '13 at 08:18
In linux not found already the correct match using subprocess it's not working if I copy paste the command it works! – c24b Jul 16 '19 at 21:32

score 16 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 29 '11 at 23:09

16

I had the same problem. Found a group post somewhere which said to remove the space between the '-p' and the password, which worked for me.

Your sample command should be:

mongoexport -h db.mysite.com -u myUser -pmyPass -c myCollection

answered Sep 29 '11 at 23:09

rowanu

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Additionally, watch out for spaces with the -f option. Your fields shouldn't be space out between commas – Ben G Oct 21 '14 at 21:12
Super weird. The same version of mongodump (2.6.11) on macOS vs Ubuntu, macOS version works with a space, the Ubuntu version does not. – DanielSmedegaardBuus Nov 14 '16 at 12:05

score 11 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 10 '11 at 11:48

11

The same error I have encountered while importing a csv file. But its just, the fact that the field list which you pass for that csv file import may have blank spaces. Just clear the blank spaces in field list.

Its the parsing error.

edited Nov 10 '11 at 11:48

eeerahul

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answered Nov 10 '11 at 11:01

HarishThangavel

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Yes, that's it.... posted the export into sublime, cleaned up, it worked for me. Thanks - – chuckjones242 Oct 28 '14 at 19:55

score 7 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 12 '18 at 10:21

I had the same issue with mongodump. After searching a bit, I found out that using the --out parameter to specify the output directory would solve this issue. The syntax for using the out parameter is

mongoexport --collection collection --out collection.json

Also in case your Mongodb instance isn't running, then you could use the --dbpath to specify the exact path to the files of your instance.

Source: http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/core/import-export/

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 21 '12 at 16:48

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I had the same issue with the mongoexport utility (using 2.0.2). My fix was to use the FULL parameter name (i.e. not -d, instead use --db).

answered Nov 21 '12 at 16:48

Sean Donders

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score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 05 '16 at 06:59

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Sometimes editor will screw it up (such as evernote). I fixed the issue by retyping the command in terminal.

answered Jan 05 '16 at 06:59

Mars Zhu

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Evernote changed the '--query' to a '—query' and that screwed the pooch for me – cpres Nov 04 '16 at 19:24

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 22 '18 at 17:51

I was also stuck in same situation and found what was causing it.

Make sure you are exporting in CSV format by adding parameter --type csv
Make sure there are no spaces in fields name, Example: --fields _id, desc is wrong but --fields id,desc,price is good

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 03 '18 at 09:27

This also works if you place the -c option first. For me, this order does work:

mongoexport -c collection -h ds111111.mlab.com:11111 -u user -p pass -d mydb

You can also leave the pass out and the server will ask you to enter the pass. This only works if the server supports SASL authentication (mlab does not for example).

score 2 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 19:05

for the (Error: Too many arguments)

Dont Use Space Between the Fields

try:

mongoexport --host localhost --db local --collection epfo_input --type=csv --out epfo_input.csv --fields cin,name,search_string,EstablishmentID,EstablishmentName,Address,officeName

Dont_Try:

mongoexport --host localhost --db local --collection epfo_input --type=csv --out epfo_input.csv --fields cin,name,search_string,Establishment ID,Establishment Name,Address,office Name

score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Oct 01 '19 at 14:30

I had the same issue with starting mongod. I used the following command:

./mongod --port 27001 --replSet abc -- dbpath /Users/seanfoley/Downloads/mongodb-osx-x86_64-3.4.3/bin/1 --logpath /Users/seanfoley/Downloads/mongodb-osx-x86_64-3.4.3/log.1 --logappend --oplogSize 5 --smallfiles --fork

The following error message appeared:

Error parsing command line: too many positional options have been specified on the command line

What fixed this issue was removing the single space between the '--' and 'dbpath'

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 29 '18 at 12:47

Had a similar issue

$too many positional arguments
$try 'mongorestore --help' for more information

Simply fix for me was to wrap the path location in quotes " "

This Failed:

mongorestore -h MY.mlab.com:MYPORT -d MYDBNAME -u ADMIN -p PASSWORD C:\Here\There\And\Back\Again

This Worked:

mongorestore -h MY.mlab.com:MYPORT -d MYDBNAME -u ADMIN -p PASSWORD "C:\Here\There\And\Back\Again"

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 13 '19 at 19:37

I had the same issue while using the "mongod --dbpath" command. What I was doing looked somewhat like this:

mongod --dbpath c:/Users/HP/Desktop/Mongo_Data

where as the command syntax was supposed to be:

mongod --dbpath=c:/Users/HP/Desktop/Mongo_Data

This worked for me. Apart from this one may take a note of the command function and syntaxes using the mongod --help command.

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Dec 22 '19 at 01:28

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In my case, I had to write the port separately from the server connection. This worked for me:

mongoexport --host=HOST --port=PORT --db=DB --collection=COLLECTION --out=OUTPUT.json -u USER -p PASS

answered Dec 22 '19 at 01:28

Hernán Albertario

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score -3 · Answer 14 · answered Apr 17 '18 at 09:25

Create a json file in the same folder where you have your mongod.exe.

eg: coll.json

and open a command prompt in this folder.

type this below in CMD.

mongoexport --db databasename --collection collectionname --out coll.json

and you will see like a progress bar very cool exporting all data.

What does "too many positional options" mean when doing a mongoexport?

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