[smartmontools-support] Exception: json.cpp(39): Assertion failed: 'a' <= c && c <= 'z'

[Adrian Sevcenco]

Hi! On an Alma9 with smartmontools-7.2-9.el9.x86_64 that have this info:

[root at fst16 ~]# smartctl -V
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-6.14.6-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

smartctl comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free
software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License; either
version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
See http://www.gnu.org for further details.

smartmontools release 7.2 dated 2020-12-30 at 16:48:30 UTC
smartmontools SVN rev 5155 dated 2020-12-30 at 16:49:18
smartmontools build host: x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu
smartmontools build with: C++17, GCC 11.4.1 20231218 (Red Hat 11.4.1-3)
smartmontools configure arguments: '--build=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu' '--host=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu' 
'--program-prefix=' '--disable-dependency-tracking' '--prefix=/usr' '--exec-prefix=/usr' '--bindir=/usr/bin' 
'--sbindir=/usr/sbin' '--sysconfdir=/etc' '--datadir=/usr/share' '--includedir=/usr/include' '--libdir=/usr/lib64' 
'--libexecdir=/usr/libexec' '--localstatedir=/var' '--sharedstatedir=/var/lib' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' 
'--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--with-selinux' '--with-libcap-ng=yes' '--with-libsystemd' 
'--with-systemdsystemunitdir=/usr/lib/systemd/system' '--sysconfdir=/etc/smartmontools/' 
'--with-systemdenvfile=/etc/sysconfig/smartmontools' 'build_alias=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu' 
'host_alias=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu' 'CXX=g++' 'CXXFLAGS=-O2 -flto=auto -ffat-lto-objects -fexceptions -g 
-grecord-gcc-switches -pipe -Wall -Werror=format-security -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS 
-specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-cc1 -fstack-protector-strong -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-annobin-cc1 
-m64 -march=x86-64-v2 -mtune=generic -fasynchronous-unwind-tables -fstack-clash-protection -fcf-protection' 
'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-z,relro -Wl,--as-needed  -Wl,-z,now -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-ld 
-specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-annobin-cc1 ' 'CC=gcc' 'CFLAGS=-O2 -flto=auto -ffat-lto-objects -fexceptions -g 
-grecord-gcc-switches -pipe -Wall -Werror=format-security -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS 
-specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-cc1 -fstack-protector-strong -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-annobin-cc1 
-m64 -march=x86-64-v2 -mtune=generic -fasynchronous-unwind-tables -fstack-clash-protection -fcf-protection' 
'PKG_CONFIG_PATH=:/usr/lib64/pkgconfig:/usr/share/pkgconfig'

##################################################################

i encountered the following exception:
Smartctl: Exception: json.cpp(39): Assertion failed: 'a' <= c && c <= 'z'
Please inform smartmontools-support at listi.jpberlin.de, including output of smartctl -V.

full output is:
[root at fst16 ~]# smartctl -x /dev/sds
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-6.14.6-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor:               SEAGATE
Product:              ST22000NM000E
Revision:             E003
Compliance:           SPC-5
User Capacity:        22,000,969,973,760 bytes [22.0 TB]
Logical block size:   512 bytes
Physical block size:  4096 bytes
LU is fully provisioned
Rotation Rate:        7200 rpm
Form Factor:          3.5 inches
Logical Unit id:      0x5000c500f374c14b
Serial number:        ZX269S4Z
Device type:          disk
Transport protocol:   SAS (SPL-3)
Local Time is:        Sat Aug  2 12:05:07 2025 EEST
SMART support is:     Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is:     Enabled
Temperature Warning:  Enabled
Read Cache is:        Enabled
Writeback Cache is:   Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Health Status: DATA CHANNEL IMPENDING FAILURE DATA ERROR RATE TOO HIGH [asc=5d, ascq=32]

Grown defects during certification <not available>
Total blocks reassigned during format <not available>
Total new blocks reassigned = 2
Power on minutes since format <not available>
Current Drive Temperature:     32 C
Drive Trip Temperature:        60 C

Manufactured in week 21 of year 2024
Specified cycle count over device lifetime:  50000
Accumulated start-stop cycles:  5
Specified load-unload count over device lifetime:  600000
Accumulated load-unload cycles:  419
Elements in grown defect list: 2

Vendor (Seagate Cache) information
   Blocks sent to initiator = 52128144
   Blocks received from initiator = 627555976
   Blocks read from cache and sent to initiator = 1354131284
   Number of read and write commands whose size <= segment size = 466318821
   Number of read and write commands whose size > segment size = 1517771

Vendor (Seagate/Hitachi) factory information
   number of hours powered up = 7964.42
   number of minutes until next internal SMART test = 33

Error counter log:
            Errors Corrected by           Total   Correction     Gigabytes    Total
                ECC          rereads/    errors   algorithm      processed    uncorrected
            fast | delayed   rewrites  corrected  invocations   [10^9 bytes]  errors
read:          0      940         0       940       1065     699316.089         102
write:         0        0      4769      4769       4770    1625399.594           0

Non-medium error count:        0

   Pending defect count:8 Pending Defects: index, LBA and accumulated_power_on_hours follow
      1:  0xf7576d30        ,   7931
Smartctl: Exception: json.cpp(39): Assertion failed: 'a' <= c && c <= 'z'
Please inform smartmontools-support at listi.jpberlin.de, including output of smartctl -V.

Thanks a lot!
Adrian