GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

failed to create the tmp directory: %w

Error message

failed to create the tmp directory: %w

What it means

DownloadFromURL first creates the staging directory <ManifestTmpDir>/manifests-from-url where remote manifests will be written. If os.MkdirAll cannot create it (permission denied, read-only FS, path is a file), the download aborts with this wrapped error.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/kubernetes/manifest/url.go:36

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"os"
	"path/filepath"

	"github.com/GoogleContainerTools/skaffold/v2/pkg/skaffold/util"
)

var ManifestsFromURL = "manifests_from_url"

// DownloadFromURL downloads the provided manifests from their URLs,
// and returns a slice containing downloaded file destinations.
func DownloadFromURL(manifests []string) ([]string, error) {
	dir := filepath.Join(ManifestTmpDir, ManifestsFromURL)
	if err := os.MkdirAll(dir, os.ModePerm); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create the tmp directory: %w", err)
	}
	var paths []string
	for _, manifest := range manifests {
		out, err := downloadFromURL(dir, manifest)

		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		paths = append(paths, out)
	}
	return paths, nil
}

func downloadFromURL(destDir string, manifest string) (string, error) {
	if manifest == "" || !util.IsURL(manifest) {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("%s is not a valid URL", manifest)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Check and free/fix the tmp directory: ensure the path is not a file (rm the stale file) and the parent is writable
2. Run the process with a user that has write access to ManifestTmpDir (often under os.TempDir()/HOME)
3. Fix the environment (writable /tmp, non-readonly rootfs, free disk space) and retry

dir := filepath.Join(ManifestTmpDir, ManifestsFromURL)
if st, err := os.Stat(dir); err == nil && !st.IsDir() {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s exists and is not a directory", dir)
}
if err := os.MkdirAll(dir, os.ModePerm); err != nil {
    return err
}

paths, err := manifest.DownloadFromURL(urls)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to create the tmp directory") {
    // fix permissions / remove stale file, then retry once
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling DownloadFromURL (via resolveRemoteAndLocal) when os.MkdirAll fails on ManifestTmpDir — e.g. tmp dir path exists as a regular file, or the process lacks write permission on the parent directory.

Common situations: Running in containers/sandboxes with read-only /tmp or restricted HOME; a leftover file occupying the tmp path from a previous crashed run; disk full.

Understand the failure class

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

Related errors

• failed to write manifest to file, err: %w
• opening hydrated manifest at %s: %w
• writing string: %w
• writing string: %w
• writing buffer contents to file: %w

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9692d8fd283bc32e. Report an issue: GitHub.