GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

getting last log file %w

Error message

getting last log file %w

What it means

SaveLastLog calls lastLogFile(fp) to resolve the path of the log file to write. When the caller passes an empty path, lastLogFile falls back to ~/.skaffold/last.log via homedir.Dir(); if that resolution fails, this error wraps the cause. The save cannot proceed because no destination path could be determined.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/event/v2/event.go:347

			return fmt.Errorf("marshalling event: %w", err)
		}
		if _, err := f.WriteString(contents.String() + "\n"); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("writing string: %w", err)
		}
	}
	handler.logLock.Unlock()
	return nil
}

// SaveLastLog writes the output from the previous run to the specified filepath
func SaveLastLog(fp string) error {
	handler.logLock.Lock()
	defer handler.logLock.Unlock()

	// Create file to write logs to
	fp, err := lastLogFile(fp)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("getting last log file %w", err)
	}
	// Ensure that the filepath provided has the directories available when attemping to save the file.
	dir := filepath.Dir(fp)
	if err := os.MkdirAll(dir, 0700); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to create directory %q: %w", dir, err)
	}
	f, err := os.OpenFile(fp, os.O_TRUNC|os.O_WRONLY|os.O_CREATE, 0600)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("opening %s: %w", fp, err)
	}
	defer f.Close()

	// Iterate over events, grabbing contents only from SkaffoldLogEvents
	var contents bytes.Buffer
	for _, ev := range handler.eventLog {
		if sle := ev.GetSkaffoldLogEvent(); sle != nil {
			// Strip ansi color sequences as this makes it easier to deal with when pasting into github issues
			if _, err = contents.WriteString(stripansi.Strip(sle.Message)); err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Pass an explicit filepath argument to SaveLastLog instead of relying on the ~/.skaffold/last.log default.
2. Set the HOME environment variable to a writable directory for the running process.
3. Check that the OS user has a valid home directory entry (getent passwd $(whoami)).

Example fix

// before
err := event.SaveLastLog("")
// after
err := event.SaveLastLog(filepath.Join(os.TempDir(), "skaffold-last.log"))

if os.Getenv("HOME") == "" && runtime.GOOS != "windows" {
    return errors.New("HOME is unset; pass an explicit path to SaveLastLog")
}

if err := event.SaveLastLog(""); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "getting last log file") {
        return event.SaveLastLog(filepath.Join(os.TempDir(), "last.log"))
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling SaveLastLog("") (or via TestSaveLastLog) on a system where homedir.Dir() fails — HOME unset, no passwd entry for the user, or the home directory resolution library erroring.

Common situations: Running skaffold in a minimal container or cron job with no HOME env var; running as a system user without a home directory; Windows profile redirection issues.

Related errors

• retrieving home directory: %w
• retrieving home directory: %w
• retrieving home directory: %w
• value must be one of `always`, `missing`, or `never`
• CONFIG_REMOTE_REPO_CACHE_NOT_FOUND_ERR

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c1cc031bb07656a0. Report an issue: GitHub.