GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

failed to create the tmp directory: %w

Error message

failed to create the tmp directory: %w

What it means

DownloadFromGCS creates a local temp directory (ManifestTmpDir/ManifestsFromGCS) via os.MkdirAll before pulling manifests from GCS. If directory creation fails (permissions, existing file at that path, read-only filesystem), the OS error is wrapped as 'failed to create the tmp directory'.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/kubernetes/manifest/gcs.go:45

)

var ManifestsFromGCS = "manifests_from_gcs"

type GCSClient interface {
	// Downloads the content that match the given src uri and subfolders.
	DownloadRecursive(ctx context.Context, src, dst string) error
}

var GetGCSClient = func() GCSClient {
	return &client.Native{}
}

// DownloadFromGCS downloads all provided manifests from a remote GCS bucket,
// and returns a relative path pointing to the GCS temp dir.
func DownloadFromGCS(manifests []string) (string, error) {
	dir := filepath.Join(ManifestTmpDir, ManifestsFromGCS)
	if err := os.MkdirAll(dir, os.ModePerm); err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to create the tmp directory: %w", err)
	}
	for _, manifest := range manifests {
		if manifest == "" || !strings.HasPrefix(manifest, gcsPrefix) {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("%v is not a valid GCS path", manifest)
		}
		gcs := GetGCSClient()
		if err := gcs.DownloadRecursive(context.Background(), manifest, dir); err != nil {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to download manifests fom GCS: %w", err)
		}
	}
	return ManifestTmpDir, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Check and fix permissions on the directory containing ManifestTmpDir (ensure the running user can create directories there)
2. If a regular file exists at the tmp-dir path, delete it so MkdirAll can create the directory
3. Free disk space or remount the filesystem read-write
4. Run with a writable TMPDIR / appropriate volume mounts in containers

dir := filepath.Join(manifest.ManifestTmpDir, "manifests-from-gcs")
if fi, err := os.Stat(dir); err == nil && !fi.IsDir() {
  return fmt.Errorf("%s exists as a file; remove it before downloading", dir)
}
if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(dir), 0o755); err != nil {
  return fmt.Errorf("temp area not writable: %w", err)
}

path, err := manifest.DownloadFromGCS(manifests)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to create the tmp directory") {
  // check permissions/disk, optionally clean stale tmp dir, then retry once
  os.RemoveAll(filepath.Join(manifest.ManifestTmpDir, "manifests-from-gcs"))
  path, err = manifest.DownloadFromGCS(manifests)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling manifest.DownloadFromGCS when os.MkdirAll on ManifestTmpDir/ManifestsFromGCS fails — e.g. a file already exists at that path, the parent dir is not writable, or the disk is full/read-only.

Common situations: Running skaffold in a container as non-root with a read-only or restricted temp filesystem, a stale regular file occupying the tmp-dir path from a previous crashed run, or HOME/cache volume mounted noexec/ro.

Understand the failure class

Background: mkdir permission denied (EACCES): failed to create directory errors explained — this error's family across 32 libraries.

Related errors

• writing string: %w
• writing string: %w
• writing buffer contents to file: %w
• failed to create directory: %v
• error opening file: %w

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3dd05637d91580b9. Report an issue: GitHub.