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

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?

mongodb


Solution 1:[1]

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'}" ...

Solution 2:[2]

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

Solution 3:[3]

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.

Solution 4:[4]

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/

Solution 5:[5]

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).

Solution 6:[6]

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

Solution 7:[7]

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

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

Solution 8:[8]

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).

Solution 9:[9]

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

Solution 10:[10]

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"

Solution 11:[11]

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'

Solution 12:[12]

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.

Solution 13:[13]

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

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