From fa278cc66821d89bd5bdcdfe5b6188ca1a9015b9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jake <jake@archive.org>
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2024 10:49:03 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] Provide helpful error when MetadataAction options have an
 invalid value

---
 internetarchive/cli/cli_utils.py | 5 ++++-
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/internetarchive/cli/cli_utils.py b/internetarchive/cli/cli_utils.py
index 505c24aa..a4aeaac2 100644
--- a/internetarchive/cli/cli_utils.py
+++ b/internetarchive/cli/cli_utils.py
@@ -164,7 +164,10 @@ def __call__(self, parser, namespace, values, option_string=None):
         for sublist in values:
             if ":" not in sublist and "=" in sublist:
                 sublist = sublist.replace("=", ":", 1)
-            key, value = sublist.split(":", 1)
+            try:
+                key, value = sublist.split(":", 1)
+            except ValueError:
+                parser.error(f"{option_string} must be formatted as 'KEY:VALUE'")
 
             current_dict = getattr(namespace, self.dest)
             if key in current_dict: