# Java.lang.IllegalArgumentException with environment variable placeholder **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [July 10, 2024, 4:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-lang-illegalargumentexception-with-environment-variable-placeholder/362901 "2024-07-10T16:35:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EAC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f19dbf/32.png) [@EAC](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/EAC)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2024, 4:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-lang-illegalargumentexception-with-environment-variable-placeholder/362901/1 "2024-07-10T16:35:00Z")
Context of environment: Newbee engaged with the learning and building of a current-version single node elasticsearch-kibana-logstash stack with manually configured security, within a current virtual Ubuntu machine. Context of Problem: Running and re-running bin/elasticsearch-certutil and -keystore tools, regardless of if installed elasticsearch is running or not. The yet-unresolved issue: At some point after running a bin/elasticsearch- tool, Java throws an IllegalArgumentException: "Could not resolve placeholder 'ES\_PATH\_CONF' which prevents any further successful engagement with those elasticsearch- tools. Now I do know what ES\_PATH\_CONF is, what it should be, and where it is defined. But I have no clue why Java cares. What have I done to get out of this so far? Go back to a prior-saved virtual machine state where the problem has not yet shown its face. Attempts to prevent this issue: 1. run the bin/elasticsearch- tool with "sudo -E ..." rather than with just "sudo ...". This seemed to enable me to run and rerun the tools for a longer period of time before the Exception starts. Attempts to clear this issue: 1. Rebooting the system, which does not clear the issue, which continues to stop further use of the -certutil and -keystore elasticsearch tools. Full Exception from "sudo -E ./bin/elasticsearch-keystore list": 'Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not resolve placeholder 'ES\_PATH\_CONF'' 'at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.PropertyPlaceholder.parseStringValue(PropertyPlaceholder.java:102)' 'at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.PropertyPlaceholder.replacePlaceholders(PropertyPlaceholder.java:57)' 'at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings$Builder.replacePropertyPlaceholders(Settings.java:1314)' 'at org.elasticsearch.node.InternalSettingsPreparer.prepareEnvironment(InternalSettingsPreparer.java:56)' 'at org.elasticsearch.common.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.createEnv(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:110)' 'at org.elasticsearch.common.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:54)' 'at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:85)' 'at org.elasticsearch.cli.MultiCommand.execute(MultiCommand.java:94)' 'at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:85)' 'at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:50)' 'at org.elasticsearch.launcher.CliToolLauncher.main(CliToolLauncher.java:64)' Full Exception from "sudo -E ./bin/elasticsearch-keystore http": 'Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not resolve placeholder 'ES\_PATH\_CONF'' 'at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.PropertyPlaceholder.parseStringValue(PropertyPlaceholder.java:102)' 'at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.PropertyPlaceholder.replacePlaceholders(PropertyPlaceholder.java:57)' 'at org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings$Builder.replacePropertyPlaceholders(Settings.java:1314)' 'at org.elasticsearch.node.InternalSettingsPreparer.prepareEnvironment(InternalSettingsPreparer.java:56)' 'at org.elasticsearch.common.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.createEnv(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:110)' 'at org.elasticsearch.common.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:54)' 'at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:85)' 'at org.elasticsearch.cli.MultiCommand.execute(MultiCommand.java:94)' 'at org.elasticsearch.xpack.security.cli.CertificateTool.execute(CertificateTool.java:161)' 'at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:85)' 'at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:50)' 'at org.elasticsearch.launcher.CliToolLauncher.main(CliToolLauncher.java:64)' Any suggestions in what direction I should start looking to learn what phenomena is setting me up for this IllegalArgumentException would be much appreciated! Thank you for your time and consideration! ---
**Author:** ![EAC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f19dbf/32.png) [@EAC](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/EAC)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 6:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-lang-illegalargumentexception-with-environment-variable-placeholder/362901/2 "2024-07-12T18:11:49Z")
Regardless of knowing why, this phenomena can be created with edits to the /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml file by inserting a prepend of "${ES\_PATH\_CONF}/" to entries containing "certs/". Neither full path prepends of "/etc/elasticsearch/" nor the untouched installed settings with "certs/" create the phenomena when going to execute tools: elasticsearch-certutil, elasticsearch-keystore, regardless of the installed elasticsearch running or not. Go ahead, have some fun and give it a try! ---
**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 5:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-lang-illegalargumentexception-with-environment-variable-placeholder/362901/3 "2024-07-15T05:46:51Z")
This error means that the `ES_PATH_CONF` variable is not set. To fix it, set the environment variable. I opened [#110858](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/110858) because I think we could make this error message clearer. ---
**Author:** ![EAC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f19dbf/32.png) [@EAC](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/EAC)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 2:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-lang-illegalargumentexception-with-environment-variable-placeholder/362901/4 "2024-07-15T14:40:39Z")
Thank you for looking in to this. After adding '${ES\_PATH\_CONF}/' as a prepend to 'certs/....' in the elasticsearch.yml ssl configurations, you will get the same java IllegalArgumentException regardless of the ES\_PATH\_CONF environment variable being set or not. These edits to elasticsearch.yml do not require restarting the elasticsearch service to see the IllegalArgumentException when going to execute elasticsearch-certutil or elasticsearch-keystore. You can toggle back and forth to success or IllegalArgumentException failure by simply adding or removing the '${ES\_PATH\_CONF}/' prepend to 'certs/...' elasticsearch.yml configurations. ---
**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 5:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-lang-illegalargumentexception-with-environment-variable-placeholder/362901/5 "2024-07-15T17:46:40Z")
> [@EAC](#): > > you will get the same java IllegalArgumentException regardless of the ES\_PATH\_CONF environment variable being set or not. I can't reproduce this. When I set `${ES_PATH_CONF}` I do not get this error.