# YAML syntax error

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error/298822
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Created:** [March 11, 2024, 5:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error/298822 "2024-03-11T05:46:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![ysinata](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ysinata/32/369501_2.png) [@ysinata](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ysinata)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2024, 5:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error/298822/1 "2024-03-11T05:46:41Z")

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while running the auto install script, it gave me an error message:

(): did not find expected key while parsing a block mapping at line 42 column 3 -e LANG=en\_US.UTF-8  
YAML syntax error. Please check your containers/\*.yml config files.

as i believe this is a docker container (i think), i dont know how to locate the file to fix the problem. I’m sorry as im not familiar with linux, docker, or programming in general.. please help

 ![image_2024-03-11_124601650](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/c/5/1/c51d4dd44ed9e8d30138e9f533f4a1ed9fa0db20.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ysinata](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ysinata/32/369501_2.png) [@ysinata](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ysinata)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2024, 6:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error/298822/2 "2024-03-11T06:29:36Z")

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ok i found out how to get into the yaml file. what is the correct way to fix the problem?

```plaintext
env:
  LC_ALL: en_US.UTF-8
  LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  LANGUAGE: en_US.UTF-8
```

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2024, 9:55am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error/298822/3 "2024-03-11T09:55:56Z")

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That’s very strange. Did you enter some tabs or something strange when you ran the script?

The easiest thing to do is you can’t figure it out is to delete the yml file and run discourse-setup again.

It’s possible, but unlikely that there has been some change to the standalone.yml template that broke the script.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Jagster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jagster/32/192154_2.png) [@Jagster](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jagster)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2025, 8:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error/298822/4 "2025-02-09T20:03:15Z")

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Yeah, really strange. Because I get similar when trying to rebuild web\_only of 2-container.

```plaintext
did not find expected key while parsing a block mapping at line 4 column 1 -e LANG=en_US.UTF-8

```

There is only one problem. I don’t use en\_US, I’m using fi\_FI.UTF-8.

**Edit**

This is unbelivable 🤦‍♂️ I had two one space long errors: one where I told S3 and one before a plugin. At least one hour wasted… when I learn those error notifications are almost everytime wrong.

Huh! I need a drink.