added a better error message if the query is malformed

api/search.go

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
+	"io/ioutil"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/url"
 )
@@ -48,6 +49,14 @@ type QueryResult struct {
 	Metadata  QueryResultMetadata      `json:"metaData"`
 }
 
+type QueryError struct {
+	error string
+}
+
+func (e QueryError) Error() string {
+	return e.error
+}
+
 func (q QueryJobs) Create(repository string, query Query) (string, error) {
 	var buf bytes.Buffer
 	err := json.NewEncoder(&buf).Encode(query)
@@ -62,7 +71,15 @@ func (q QueryJobs) Create(repository string, query Query) (string, error) {
 		return "", err
 	}
 
-	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+	switch resp.StatusCode {
+	case http.StatusBadRequest:
+		body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
+		if err != nil {
+			return "", err
+		}
+		return "", QueryError{string(body)}
+	case http.StatusOK:
+	default:
 		return "", fmt.Errorf("could not create query job, got status code %d", resp.StatusCode)
 	}
 

cmd/search.go

@@ -40,11 +40,6 @@ func newSearchCmd() *cobra.Command {
 
 			// run in lambda func to be able to defer and delete the query job
 			err := func() error {
-				var progress *queryResultProgressBar
-				if !noProgress {
-					progress = newQueryResultProgressBar()
-				}
-
 				id, err := client.QueryJobs().Create(repository, api.Query{
 					QueryString: queryString,
 					Start:       start,
@@ -57,6 +52,11 @@ func newSearchCmd() *cobra.Command {
 					return err
 				}
 
+				var progress *queryResultProgressBar
+				if !noProgress {
+					progress = newQueryResultProgressBar()
+				}
+
 				defer func(id string) {
 					// Humio will eventually delete the query when we stop polling and we can't do much about errors here.
 					_ = client.QueryJobs().Delete(repository, id)
@@ -119,6 +119,11 @@ func newSearchCmd() *cobra.Command {
 				err = nil
 			}
 
+			if queryError, ok := err.(api.QueryError); ok {
+				fmt.Printf("There was an error in your query string:\n\n%s\n", queryError.Error())
+				os.Exit(1)
+			}
+
 			exitOnError(cmd, err, "error running search")
 		},
 	}