iptables-restore: line 1 failed

Question

I am new to servers, and I was following this guide and it failed on the first command instructed. Could anyone give me a hand?

http://wiki.debian.org/iptables

~ZORO~:/etc# iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.test.rules
iptables-restore: line 1 failed

Edit: iptables.test.rules

~ZORO~:/etc# cat /etc/iptables.test.rules

 *filter

 # Allows all loopback (lo0) traffic and drop all traffic to 127/8 that doesn't use lo0
 -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
 -A INPUT -i ! lo -d 127.0.0.0/8 -j REJECT

 # Accepts all established inbound connections
 -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

 # Allows all outbound traffic
 # You could modify this to only allow certain traffic
 -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT

 # Allows HTTP and HTTPS connections from anywhere (the normal ports for websites)
 -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
 -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT

 # Allows SSH connections for script kiddies
 # THE -dport NUMBER IS THE SAME ONE YOU SET UP IN THE SSHD_CONFIG FILE
 -A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW --dport 30000 -j ACCEPT

 # Now you should read up on iptables rules and consider whether ssh access 
 # for everyone is really desired. Most likely you will only allow access from certain IPs.

 # Allow ping
 -A INPUT -p icmp -m icmp --icmp-type 8 -j ACCEPT

 # log iptables denied calls (access via 'dmesg' command)
 -A INPUT -m limit --limit 5/min -j LOG --log-prefix "iptables denied: " --log-level 7

 # Reject all other inbound - default deny unless explicitly allowed policy:
 -A INPUT -j REJECT
 -A FORWARD -j REJECT

 COMMIT

Answer 1

Check that the file /etc/iptables.test.rules has no space characters before the actual commands and comments. If it does, remove them.

Answer 2

Hm could it possibly be an EOL type error?

If it is this should fix it:

dos2unix /etc/iptables.test.rules

I'm sure there's a way to test it before running unix2dos. Perhaps using grep or something. I usually just use vim and check out the status line.

Answer 3

there is extra space in the list...I got the same error and remove the extra space in every line, it will work.